An Evaluation of Imitation Recognition Abilities in Typically Developing Children and Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Preschoolers with autism need about two minutes of being copied before they realize it—build this wait time into your sessions.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team watched preschoolers with and without autism. They wanted to know how quickly each child noticed an adult copying them.
The adult mirrored the child's moves for 30, 60, or 120 seconds. Kids who said "You're doing what I do!" passed the test.
What they found
Most typical kids spotted the imitation right away. Many autistic kids needed the full two-minute stretch.
The longer the copy-cat game lasted, the more autistic children caught on. Better recognition linked to milder symptoms and stronger language.
How this fits with other research
Chetcuti et al. (2019) also saw autistic preschoolers lag behind peers, but on doing rather than noticing imitation. Together the papers show both sides of the imitation coin are slower in ASD.
Ingersoll et al. (2013) flipped the script: they taught adolescents with autism to imitate others. Gains in spontaneous copying show the skill can be trained, even if early recognition is weak.
De Coster et al. (2018) moved the idea to adults. After adults with autism were imitated for several minutes, their empathy rose. The 2015 kid data and the 2018 adult data line up—longer contingent imitation helps across ages.
Why it matters
If you run social skills groups, stretch the imitation phase. Let the child lead for two full minutes while you mirror every move and sound. This extra time gives the brain a chance to register "Hey, that's me!" and opens the door to joint attention and shared play.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Previous work has indicated that both typically developing children and children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) display a range of imitation recognition behaviors in response to a contingent adult imitator. However, it is unknown how the two groups perform comparatively on this construct. In this study, imitation recognition behaviors for children with ASD and typically developing children were observed during periods of contingent imitation imbedded in a naturalistic imitation task. Results from this study indicate that children with ASD are impaired in their ability to recognize being imitated relative to typically developing peers as demonstrated both by behaviors representing basic social attention and more mature imitation recognition. Display of imitation recognition behaviors was independent of length of contingent imitation period in typically developing children, but rate of engagement in imitation recognition behaviors was positively correlated with length of contingent imitation period in children with ASD. Exploratory findings also suggest a link between the ability to demonstrate recognition of being imitated and ASD symptom severity, language, and object imitation for young children with ASD.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2015 · doi:10.1002/aur.1462