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Mechanisms of Imitation Impairment in Autism Spectrum Disorder
Journal article

Mechanisms of Imitation Impairment in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Giacomo Vivanti, David Trembath and Cheryl Dissanayake
Journal of abnormal child psychology, v 42(8), pp 1395-1405
01 Nov 2014
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-014-9874-9
PMID: 24736983
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel

Abstract

Psychology Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Developmental Social Sciences
Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have difficulties with imitation, though the nature of these remains unclear. In this study, involving 28 preschoolers with ASD (M age = 48 months; 90 % male), 17 matched children with Global Developmental Delay (GDD group; M age = 44 months; 53 % male) and 17 typically developing children (TD group, M age = 52 months; 65 % male), we found that preschoolers with ASD 1) imitate less frequently than both typically developing children and children with GDD; 2) when they do imitate, their imitation is less accurate than that of TD children but similar to that of children with GDD; 3) unlike participants in both comparison groups, preschoolers with ASD use emulation more often than imitation when copying others' actions; 4) they spend less time looking at the model's face and more time looking at her actions; and 5) attentional, social and executive factors underlie different aspects of imitation difficulties in this population. Implications for developmental models of autism are discussed.

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60 citations in Web of Science
65 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Psychology, Clinical
Psychology, Developmental
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