About JASPER
Introduction
Joint Attention, Symbolic Play, Engagement, and Regulation (JASPER) is a treatment approach based on a combination of developmental and behavioral principles developed by Dr. Connie Kasari the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). JASPER is a targeted, modular intervention in the domain of social communication and included in the broader category of naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBI; Schreibman et al., 2015). It targets the foundations of social communication (joint attention, engagement, and play) and uses naturalistic strategies to increase the rate and complexity of social communication.
Core Domains
Learn about the four domains of JASPER that are foundational in the development of social communication.
Joint Attention
Joint attention (JA) is the coordination of attention between objects and people for the purpose of sharing. Our studies show that children with ASD use more JA skills are modeled and taught directly.
Symbolic Play
We model appropriate play, facilitate joint attention within play routines, and encourage greater diversity in types of play with the goal of helping children increase their flexibility and level of play.
Engagement
Increases in engagement are critical because they lead to more opportunities for social communication and learning. Thus, we aim to help children with ASD reach higher states of joint engagement with others.
Regulation
Our approach stresses the importance of emotion and behavior regulation. We offer strategies to address diminished engagement, restrictive and repetitive behaviors, and challenges with regulation.
Implementation
JASPER has been empirically tested with many children, ranging in age from 12 months to 8 years, with a wide range of developmental abilities. It can be implemented by parents, teachers, clinicians, paraprofessionals, and other related service providers. The intervention works well in conjunction with other behavioral-based therapies and can be naturally incorporated into inclusion and special education classrooms and every day activities in the home. The only required materials are developmentally-appropriate toys or activities.
Research, Evidence, and Results
Over the past 20 years, JASPER has been tested in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving nearly 700 children with ASD with studies conducted both within the Kasari Lab and by independent researchers. Across many independent trials evaluating JASPER’s efficacy, we found improvements in joint engagement, social communication, and emotion regulation with decreasing negativity over time, as well as increasing parental co-regulation strategies. Studies show evidence of improvements in these core areas while also increasing the child’s use of language over a 5 year span after the intervention.