Gesture Imitation Performance and Visual Exploration in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Autism spectrum disorders
Eye-tracking
Imitative behavior
Motor execution
Visual attention
Journal
Journal of autism and developmental disorders
ISSN: 1573-3432
Titre abrégé: J Autism Dev Disord
Pays: United States
ID NLM: 7904301
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
15 Oct 2024
15 Oct 2024
Historique:
accepted:
29
09
2024
medline:
15
10
2024
pubmed:
15
10
2024
entrez:
15
10
2024
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
Most studies in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) support a decrement in imitation performance. Factors related to visual attention and motor execution have been proposed to explain this phenomenon in ASD. However, studies investigated imitation with various methods, leading to inconsistent findings. Here, we examine imitation performance related to visual attention and motor execution. We focused on the imitation of meaningful and meaningless gestures, consistently reported as more affected than imitation of actions with objects in ASD. The imitation eye-tracking task consisted of a video of an actor demonstrating gestures and prompting children to imitate them. The demonstrations comprised meaningful and meaningless hand gestures, and meaningless facial gestures. We measured the fixation duration to the actor' face during child-directed speech and gesture demonstrations. We video-recorded children to assess their performance. Our sample comprised 100 participants (3.55 ± 1.11 years old), including 84 children with ASD. The ASD and typically developing groups displayed the same visual attention toward gesture demonstrations, although children with ASD spent less time looking at the face during facial stimuli. Visual exploration of actors' gestures did not influence imitation performance. Imitation of meaningful gestures was associated with less severe autistic symptoms, whereas imitation of meaningless gestures was correlated with higher non-verbal cognitive and fine-motor skills. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the complexity of imitation. We delineated the distinct nature of imitation of meaningful and meaningless gestures in children with ASD. We discuss clinical implications in relation to assessment and intervention programs.
Identifiants
pubmed: 39404926
doi: 10.1007/s10803-024-06595-w
pii: 10.1007/s10803-024-06595-w
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Subventions
Organisme : Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
ID : 51NF40-185897
Organisme : Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
ID : 191227
Organisme : Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
ID : 163859
Organisme : Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
ID : 190084
Organisme : Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
ID : 202235
Organisme : Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
ID : 212653
Informations de copyright
© 2024. The Author(s).
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