An exploration of imitation recognition in young children with autism spectrum disorders.
Preschoolers with autism who show mature imitation-recognition also have stronger social and imitation skills, so teach them to notice when they are being copied.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team watched 30 preschoolers with autism during play.
They counted how often each child showed "mature" imitation-recognition.
Mature means the child knew someone was copying him and reacted with a smile or sound.
Kids also took tests of social give-and-take and basic imitation.
What they found
Most kids used the babyish form of imitation-recognition.
Only a few gave clear social feedback when copied.
Those few scored higher on sharing toys and copying new actions.
The link stayed strong even after age and IQ were held constant.
How this fits with other research
Nadel et al. (2011) showed that two short videos let non-verbal preschoolers with autism learn a whole task by watching.
Their success suggests these kids can process modeled actions, so the weak imitation-recognition in I et al. is not a seeing problem—it is a social responding problem.
Tsiouri et al. (2012) used Rapid Motor Imitation Antecedent inside DTT to spark first words.
Their positive results line up with I et al.: once the child notices he is being copied, you have a doorway to teach both play and language.
Why it matters
Check imitation-recognition before you plan social drills.
If the child gives little feedback when copied, start by reinforcing any smile, look, or sound that shows he notices the match.
That tiny social payoff can open the gate for bigger imitation and language programs later.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The ability to recognize when one is being imitated has been hypothesized to be an important developmental process related to the emergence of more advanced social-cognitive skills. While a series of behaviors indicating progressively more mature imitation recognition (IR) skills has been assessed in typically developing children, empirical work with children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) has largely focused on basic social responses to an imitative adult (e.g. increases in eye contact). Limited work has explored more mature IR behaviors in this population. This study compared the degree to which children with ASD engage in different behaviors thought to be indicative of IR during a naturalistic imitation task and the relationship between different types of IR behaviors and social-cognitive skills (i.e. imitation, language, social reciprocity, and joint attention). Thirty children with ASD were administered standardized measures of cognitive level, language, joint attention, social reciprocity, and imitation. IR behaviors were observed during periods of contingent imitation by an adult. Participants engaged more frequently in less mature (e.g. looking at the experimenter's toy or face) than more mature IR behaviors (e.g. testing the experimenter's intent to imitate). After controlling for developmental level, social reciprocity, object imitation, and gesture imitation were positively correlated with more mature IR. These findings suggest that the development of more mature IR skills is related to the development of other social-cognitive skills in children with ASD and provide additional empirical support for reports of more mature IR observed in this population. , Inc.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2013 · doi:10.1002/aur.1303