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Self representation in children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorders
Dennis P Carmody1, Michael Lewis
1Institute for the Study of Child Development, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, 89 French Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. carmoddp@umdnj.edu
Child Psychiatry and Human Development
|October 21, 2011
Summary
Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) show underdeveloped self-representation abilities compared to typically developing children. These abilities correlate with social interaction skills, not solely mental age.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Self-representation is crucial for social cognition.
- Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are associated with social and communication challenges.
- Understanding self-representation deficits in ASD is key to targeted interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate self-representation abilities in children with ASD compared to typically developing (TD) children.
- To examine the influence of mental age, social interaction, and communication on self-representation in ASD.
- To identify specific deficits in self-representation within the ASD population.
Main Methods:
- Comparison of TD children (n=66) and children with ASD (n=20).
- Assessment of self-representation through mirror recognition, other-directed pretend play, and personal pronoun usage.
- Utilized the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) to evaluate social interaction and communication.
Main Results:
- TD children demonstrated significantly higher rates of mirror recognition (100% vs 55%), other-directed pretend play (80% vs 35%), and personal pronoun use (83% vs 63%) compared to children with ASD.
- Self-representation ability in children with ASD was positively correlated with Social Interaction scores on the ADOS.
- No significant relationship was found between self-representation ability and Communication scores on the ADOS-G.
- Deficits in self-representation were observed in children with ASD despite having a mental age of at least 2 years.
Conclusions:
- Self-representation ability is underdeveloped in a subset of children with ASD.
- Social interaction skills, but not communication skills or mental age alone, are associated with self-representation abilities in children with ASD.
- Findings suggest that interventions targeting social interaction may benefit the development of self-representation in children with ASD.
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