Effect of sensory feedback on immediate object imitation in children with autism.
Give sensory toys that light up or make sound to boost imitation in preschoolers with autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Ingersoll et al. (2003) watched preschoolers copy simple toy actions.
Half the toys lit up or beeped when used. The other half stayed quiet.
Kids with autism and typical kids each tried both kinds of toys.
What they found
Children with autism copied more steps when the toy gave lights or sounds.
Typical children did the same with or without the extra feedback.
Both groups liked the sensory toys better, but only the autism group showed better imitation.
How this fits with other research
Rosenthal et al. (1980) first showed that autistic kids lock onto their favorite sense. Brooke’s team built on this by turning that preference into a teaching tool.
Stephens (2008) later used music instead of lights and also saw more imitation. The idea holds across different kinds of sensory input.
Reed (2023) looks like a contradiction: his team found that verbal feedback hurts autistic learning. The key difference is the task. Brooke used quick play actions; Phil asked kids to switch sorting rules. Sensory input helps simple imitation, while extra words hurt flexible thinking.
Why it matters
If a child with autism struggles to copy you, add a flash or a beep. Pick toys that sing, light up, or vibrate. The same action now gives its own reward, and imitation jumps without extra prompting. Swap your silent blocks for a light-up magic wand in your next turn-taking game.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study examined the effect of sensory feedback (e.g., flashing lights and sound) on the imitation performance of children with autism and typical children group-matched for mental age. Participants were administered an immediate object-imitation task with six novel toys constructed for this study: three with a sensory effect that could be activated by imitating the modeled action and three without a sensory effect. Although overall imitation performance did not differ significantly between the two groups, the imitation performance of the participants with autism was significantly higher with sensory toys than with nonsensory toys. Typical participants' imitation performance did not differ between the two sets of toys. Both groups played significantly more with the sensory toys during free play, indicating that sensory toys were more reinforcing for both groups. Additional results demonstrated that typical children used significantly more social behaviors during imitation than children with autism, but they did not differ in object-oriented behaviors, replicating previous findings. It is argued that children with autism may be less motivated to imitate by social interaction, but may be motivated to imitate to receive a nonsocial reward (sensory feedback).
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2003 · doi:10.1023/b:jadd.0000006003.26667.f8