Can Enactment and Motor Imagery Improve Working Memory for Instructions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Children with Intellectual Disability?

Tingting’s team asked the kids to remember three-step instructions.

Thirty kids had autism, 30 had intellectual disability, and 30 were typical peers.

Kids either acted the steps out, imagined acting them, or just listened.

Then the adults asked, “What were the steps?” and counted correct answers.

Acting the steps helped every group, but typical kids gained the most.

Autistic and ID kids gained only half as much.

Imagining the steps helped only the typical kids.

For the disabled groups, imagery added no benefit at all.

Ye et al. (2023) pooled 25 studies and found “mental time travel” is weak in autism.

That meta-analysis explains why motor imagery flops: autistic kids struggle to picture future actions.

Gandhi et al. (2022) showed teachers already rate early-elementary autistic students low on working memory.

Tingting’s data now prove those ratings translate to smaller gains from memory tricks like enactment.

Jachyra et al. (2021) found auditory cues help autistic kids more than visual ones.

Together the papers hint that sound cues, not body imagery, may be the better memory scaffold.

You can still use enactment—it just needs more repetitions for autistic learners.

Skip “picture yourself doing it” prompts; they waste time.

Pair enacted practice with brief auditory cues (a tap or beep at each step) to squeeze out extra recall.