Thursday, May 20, 2010
Franklin Hall B Level 4 (Philadelphia Marriott Downtown)
11:00 AM
Background: Imitation is a primary deficit associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). As reviewed by Williams et al. (2004), this deficit has been demonstrated in a variety of imitation contexts, including meaningful and non-meaningful gestures, sequential imitation, actions on objects, as well as spontaneous and differed imitation.
Objectives: The first aim is to investigate the impact of familiarity on imitative ability, by assessing participant imitation of a parent or guardian versus a stranger. The second aim is to investigate the consistency of imitation impairment across hand gestures and face expressions.
Methods: Imitative ability was assessed in a sample of children (mean= 6.4, SD=1.2) with an autism spectrum disorder (N=18) and typical development (N=22) participating in an ongoing study of imitation. Imitation of hand gestures and face expressions, modified from the Mature Imitation Task (Rogers et al., 2006), were pre-recorded and displayed on a video screen. The task included the presentation of 8 face expressions and 8 hand gestures, half of which were executed by the participant’s mother or guardian, with the remaining gestures executed by an individual unfamiliar to the participant. Imitative acts were then scored offline by a coder blind to subject status.
Results: Preliminary analysis reveals differences between the typical and ASD groups, with the ASD group performing significantly poorer than typical group on all imitation measures (p<.000). Differences in type of imitative act (hand or face) were found, with ASD individuals scoring significantly poorer on hand imitation than facial imitation (p<.05), while no significant differences were found between imitative acts in typical individuals. In this preliminary analysis familiarity of model did not impact imitation ability across groups, although group differences approached significance (p=.07).
Conclusions: Our results are consistent with previous findings demonstrating a deficit in imitation ability among individuals with ASD. Our findings further indicate an inconsistency across type of imitative act (hand or face) within the ASD group, showing a greater deficit in hand gesture imitation. Ostensibly, this finding is counterintuitive considering well-documented deficits of face processing in ASD. However, typical children may better utilize the opportunity for visual self-correction available during hand imitation than do children with autism. Future analyses will assess time engaged in self-corrective behavior during the imitative act.
Objectives: The first aim is to investigate the impact of familiarity on imitative ability, by assessing participant imitation of a parent or guardian versus a stranger. The second aim is to investigate the consistency of imitation impairment across hand gestures and face expressions.
Methods: Imitative ability was assessed in a sample of children (mean= 6.4, SD=1.2) with an autism spectrum disorder (N=18) and typical development (N=22) participating in an ongoing study of imitation. Imitation of hand gestures and face expressions, modified from the Mature Imitation Task (Rogers et al., 2006), were pre-recorded and displayed on a video screen. The task included the presentation of 8 face expressions and 8 hand gestures, half of which were executed by the participant’s mother or guardian, with the remaining gestures executed by an individual unfamiliar to the participant. Imitative acts were then scored offline by a coder blind to subject status.
Results: Preliminary analysis reveals differences between the typical and ASD groups, with the ASD group performing significantly poorer than typical group on all imitation measures (p<.000). Differences in type of imitative act (hand or face) were found, with ASD individuals scoring significantly poorer on hand imitation than facial imitation (p<.05), while no significant differences were found between imitative acts in typical individuals. In this preliminary analysis familiarity of model did not impact imitation ability across groups, although group differences approached significance (p=.07).
Conclusions: Our results are consistent with previous findings demonstrating a deficit in imitation ability among individuals with ASD. Our findings further indicate an inconsistency across type of imitative act (hand or face) within the ASD group, showing a greater deficit in hand gesture imitation. Ostensibly, this finding is counterintuitive considering well-documented deficits of face processing in ASD. However, typical children may better utilize the opportunity for visual self-correction available during hand imitation than do children with autism. Future analyses will assess time engaged in self-corrective behavior during the imitative act.