Imitation of Object-Directed Acts in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Gonsiorowski et al. (2016) watched toddlers play with toys. Some kids were later diagnosed with autism. Others had delays or were typical.

An adult showed simple object actions like pushing a car. The team counted how many moves each child copied and how long they looked at the demo.

Toddlers who later got an ASD label copied fewer actions and spent less time watching the demo than typical peers. Kids with other delays did about the same as typical.

Whitehouse et al. (2014) seems to disagree. They found no autism imitation gap when the task pulled out object movement from the exact hand shape. The gap only shows up when kids must watch and copy the whole demo, eye gaze and all.

Hermans et al. (2011) and D'Entremont et al. (2007) back up the idea that autism imitation is shaky. They saw poorer gesture copying and no preference for intentional over accidental moves, hinting that both attention and meaning matter.

Vanvuchelen et al. (2013) tie it together. Their review says kids with autism can struggle with picking what to copy and matching how to move. Gonsiorowski adds early evidence that looking away from the model may start the whole problem.

If reduced looking drives poor imitation, BCBAs can front-load therapy with simple attention cues before any social skill trial. Try pointing, lighting the object, or using the child’s name, then model right away. More eyes on the demo may mean more actions in the child’s play book, even before a formal diagnosis is made.