Teaching the imitation and spontaneous use of descriptive gestures in young children with autism using a naturalistic behavioral intervention.

Ingersoll et al. (2007) worked with five preschoolers who had autism.

They used Reciprocal Imitation Training, or RIT, during regular play.

Adults copied the child first, then waited for the child to copy back.

The team tracked how well each child imitated and later used descriptive gestures like "big" or "hot."

Every child learned to copy the target gestures.

Most kept the skill weeks later and used it in new places.

Three kids also started showing the gestures on their own, without any prompt.

Eussen et al. (2016) seems to disagree. They saw that autistic children still struggled when adults directly asked them to copy gestures. The key difference is testing style: Brooke’s team played on the floor, while M et al. used table-top tasks. Playful teaching beats formal testing.

Hermans et al. (2011) showed that autistic kids can recognize a gesture yet still fail to do it. Brooke’s study proves that extra imitation practice can close that gap.

Attwood et al. (1988) found that autistic children rarely start gestures themselves. Brooke’s RIT gives a clear way to boost that missing spontaneous use.

You can add RIT to any play routine tomorrow. Sit on the floor, copy the child’s actions, then pause and look expectant. When you do this a few times each session, you may see both imitation and new spontaneous gestures emerge within weeks.