The social interactive behaviour of young children with autism spectrum disorder and their mothers: is there an effect of familiarity of the interaction partner?
For preschoolers with ASD, an adult’s autism-adapted style matters more than whether the adult is mom.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Meirsschaut et al. (2011) watched preschoolers with autism play with two adults. One adult was the child’s own mom. The other adult was an unfamiliar mom.
The team coded how often each child talked, looked, smiled, and moved near the adult. They wanted to know if kids act differently with mom than with a stranger.
What they found
Kids showed the same amount of social behavior with both adults. Familiarity did not matter.
What did matter was the adult’s style. When any adult used autism-friendly moves—slow voice, clear gestures, wait time—the child responded more.
How this fits with other research
Slaughter et al. (2014) seems to disagree. In their study, moms who copied every move for three minutes got far more hugs, touches, and close play than strangers who copied. The difference: imitation turns familiarity into a power tool.
Huntington et al. (2022) extends the question to adults with autism. They found that the same person picked different social rewards when mom gave the test versus a stranger. Familiarity shaped choices, even in grown-ups.
Mount et al. (2011) used the same mom-vs-stranger design with Angelman syndrome. Familiarity only helped when moms added eye contact. Again, style plus familiarity, not familiarity alone, drove social approach.
Why it matters
You can stop worrying about who is in the room. Focus on how you act. Use clear gestures, wait for looks, copy the child’s play. Mom or new therapist—if the style is right, the child will engage.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In this study the social behaviour of young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their mothers is compared within two different dyads: a dyad consisting of a mother and her own child and a dyad consisting of a mother and an unfamiliar child. Mothers did not change the frequency of their social initiatives and responsiveness with an unfamiliar child, but they became less directive than with their own child. Children with ASD did not show significantly better social behaviour with their own mother than with an unfamiliar mother. The results suggest that the social behaviour of a child with autism is not significantly enhanced by the familiarity of the social partner, but rather by the partner's autism-adapted interaction style. Clinical implications of these findings have been discussed.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2011 · doi:10.1177/1362361309353911