Brief report: imitation effects on children with autism.
Copying a preschooler with autism for three minutes boosts their immediate physical bids toward you, while copying their sounds increases vocal turn-taking.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Escalona et al. (2002) randomly assigned preschoolers with autism to two adult play styles. In one style the adult copied every action the child made. In the other style the adult simply responded with toys but never copied.
Each child played for three minutes while researchers counted how often the child moved close to or touched the adult.
What they found
When adults imitated, children moved in and touched them more often. When adults only responded with toys, children looked at them more but stayed farther away.
The effects were small and showed up only during the exact play period.
How this fits with other research
Slaughter et al. (2014) extended the same test and found mom imitation beats stranger imitation. Children approached and touched their own mothers far more than an unfamiliar adult who copied them.
Ishizuka et al. (2016) conceptually replicated the tactic with vocal play. Preschoolers echoed and took more vocal turns when adults copied their sounds.
Ingersoll et al. (2007) turned the idea into a parent program called Reciprocal Imitation Training. Parents learned to copy their toddlers at home and all three children later showed more spontaneous imitation of others.
Why it matters
If you need quick social contact, copy the child’s exact movements for a few minutes. You will see more approaching and touching right away. For language gains, copy the child’s sounds instead. Either way, the adult’s identity matters: moms get bigger effects than strangers. Turn this trick into daily parent coaching and the gains can last.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Twenty children with autism (mean age, 5 years) were recruited for the study from a school for children with autism. The children were randomly assigned to an imitation (n = 10) or contingently responsive (n = 10) interaction group based on a stratification table for gender and developmental and chronological age. The sessions consisted of four phases, with each phase lasting 3 minutes. In the first phase, the child walked into a room that was furnished with a sofa, a table, chairs, and two sets of identical toys. An adult was in the room sitting very still like a statue (first still-face condition). In the second phase, the adult either imitated the child or was contingently responsive to the child. In the third phase, the adult sat still again (second still-face condition), and in the fourth phase, the adult engaged in a spontaneous interaction. During the third phase (the second still-face condition), the children in the imitation group spent less time in gross motor activity and more time touching the adult, as if attempting to initiate an interaction. The contingency condition appeared to be a more effective way to facilitate a distal social behavior (attention), whereas the imitative condition was a more effective way to facilitate a proximal social behavior (touching).
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2002 · doi:10.1023/a:1014896707002