Joint attention ability in children with autistic spectrum disorders.

Background: joint attention in children with autistic spectrum disorders.

Aim: to evaluate joint attention ability in subjects with autistic spectrum disorders in different contexts and with different interlocutors.

Method: twenty subjects with ages between four and twelve years, diagnosed with autism or asperger syndrome (DSM-IV-TR, 2002) by a multidisciplinary team, with no associated disorders, and who were enrolled in language therapy for at least six months were assessed.

Administration of the Autism Behavior Checklist: agreement between parents and professionals' observations in two intervention contexts.

Objective: To determine the agreement between responses on the Autism Behavior Checklist by mothers and healthcare professionals.

Method: Twenty-three mothers of children from the autism spectrum (DSM-IV-TR, 2002) were interviewed. The children were part of an educational program of the Autistic Friends Association-SP.

[Visual short-term memory in children with specific language impairment].

Background: relationship between Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and visual short-term memory.

Aim: to compare the performance of children with SLI to a control group of children with normal language development in tasks involving visual short-term memory.

Method: subjects were 20 SLI children (ages 3;0 to 5;11), and 29 children with normal language development (ages 2;0 to 4;11), assessed in tasks of visual short-term memory involving picture recognition and localization recall of objects previously manipulated by the examiner.