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Journal ArticleDOI

Systematic identification of perceptual disabilities in autistic children.

01 Aug 1970-Perceptual and Motor Skills (SAGE Publications)-Vol. 31, Iss: 1, pp 239-246
TL;DR: The data suggest that a basic difficulty in infantile autism may not be an avoidance of auditory and visual stimuli per se but rather a deficit in ability to make cross-modal associations.
Abstract: Matching-to-sample tasks were used to test the ability of six autistic children to make visual, vocal, and fine motor responses in response to visual and auditory stimuli. The results indicated that: the testing method was appropriate for low-functioning children; the group was heterogeneous with respect to perceptual deficits; and fine motor performance was poor. The data suggest that a basic difficulty in infantile autism may not be an avoidance of auditory and visual stimuli per se but rather a deficit in ability to make cross-modal associations. It is further suggested that the testing method would be useful for constructing profiles of perceptual disabilities with many types of low-functioning children.
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a sample of boys aged from 5 to 10 years with no demonstrable neurological dysfunction, hearing loss or mental retardation, who had a current severe developmental disorder of the understanding of spoken language were examined using standard psychological tests of cognitive, linguistic and social behaviour, together with a standardized interview administered to the parents.
Abstract: A sample of boys aged from 5 to 10 years with no demonstrable neurological dysfunction, hearing loss or mental retardation, who had a current severe developmental disorder of the understanding of spoken language were examined using standard psychological tests of cognitive, linguistic and social behaviour, together with a standardized interview administered to the parents. Results showed that within this group children diagnosed as autistic had a more deviant language development than non-autistic children, had a more severe comprehension defect, had a more extensive language disability (in that it involved several different modalities), and also showed a defect in the social usage of the language they possessed. There were very few differences in the pattern of non-linguistic skills, and it is concluded that a language disability is probably necessary for the development of the behavioural syndrome of autism.

587 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a four-level framework of social understanding that organizes the ways in which social organisms represent the intentional relations of themselves and other agents, assuming that the information available to an organism about its own intentional relations (or first person information) is qualitatively different from the information known to that organism about other agents' intentional relations, or third person information).
Abstract: Organisms engage in various activities that are directed at objects, whether real or imagined. Such activities may be termed “intentional relations.” We present a four-level framework of social understanding that organizes the ways in which social organisms represent the intentional relations of themselves and other agents. We presuppose that the information available to an organism about its own intentional relations (or first person information) is qualitatively different from the information available to that organism about other agents’ intentional relations (or third person information). However, through the integration of these two sources of information, it is possible to generate representations of intentional relations that are uniformly applicable to the activities of both self and other. The four levels of the framework differ in the extent to which such integration occurs and in the degree to which imagination is involved in generating these representations. Most animals exist at the lowest level, at which integration of first and third person sources of information does not occur. Of nonhuman species, only great apes exhibit social understanding at intermediate levels, at which integration of these sources of information provides uniform representations of intentional relations. Only humans attain the highest level, at which it is possible to represent intentional relations with mental objects. We propose that with the development of the imagination, children progress through three stages, equivalent to the later three levels of the framework. The abnormalities in social understanding of autistic individuals are hypothesized to result from a failure to develop integrated representations of intentional relations.

449 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is suggested that during early life, psychotic children, unlike the subnormal who have less severe visual-motor or language processing handicaps, cannot use parents' help to interpret environment.
Abstract: Experimental psychotic children, 9 boys and 3 girls (mean age=66.9 mos.) were compared with 5 non-psychotic subnormal boys (mean age=72 mos.) in body imitation, motor-object imitation and spontaneous object use and also for influence of task class and difficulty using each subject's adaptive age as referant. Psychotic children did poorly in body, better in motor-object imitation and best in object use. Controls achieved higher body and motor-object imitation scores. Task difficulty equally affected the performances of subjects and controls. Body imitation failure, traced to neurophysiological deficiencies, combined with severe central language disorders in the psychotic group, precluded non-verbal and verbal interpersonal communication. It is suggested that during early life, psychotic children, unlike the subnormal who have less severe visual-motor or language processing handicaps, cannot use parents' help to interpret environment.

241 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This model proposes that complex human behaviors may be guided by multiple overlapping neural mechanisms.
Abstract: Behavioral impairments in autism are theorized to result from abnormal neuronal organization in brain development generating 4 systemically related neurofunctional impairments: (a) canalesthesia, wherein abnormal hippocampal system function "canalizes" sensory records, disrupting integration of information; (b) impaired assignment of the affective significance of stimuli, wherein abnormal amygdaloid system function disrupts affect association; (c) asociality, wherein impaired oxytocin system function flattens social bonding and affiliativeness; and (d) extended selective attention, wherein abnormal organization of temporal and parietal polysensory regions yields aberrant overprocessing of primary representations. This model proposes that complex human behaviors may be guided by multiple overlapping neural mechanisms.

213 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, generalized imitative behavior, commonly found in normal children but reduced or absent in autistic children, was studied in two autistic children and operator conditioning methods were applied to teach the children generalized imitation behavior in a laboratory setting.

152 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The establishment of imitative responding in the autistic child, even if it did not lead to an immediate increase in his repertoire of spontaneous behavior, might nevertheless significantly increase his overall range of behaviors, and perhaps provide a basis for further learning.
Abstract: ONE of the major characteristics of many autistic children is their general failure to imitate. 1,2 Since much human learning is imitative in nature, the failure to imitate may contribute to the limited behavioral repertoire of the autistic child. It is possible that this failure could result from inadequate motivation for attending to appropriate cues. By elevating motivational levels and associating rewards more closely with attention to cues, imitative behavior might be emitted more frequently. Thus, the establishment of imitative responding in the autistic child, even if it did not lead to an immediate increase in his repertoire of spontaneous behavior, might nevertheless significantly increase his overall range of behaviors, and perhaps provide a basis for further learning. Although the work of Ferster and DeMyer, 3,4 Hingtgen et al, 5 and Hingtgen and Trost 6 demonstrated that individual and social

42 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A three-week intensive imitative traning period resulted in substantially increased attending responses, the establishment of a large number of verbal and nonverbal imitative behaviors, and the development of more complex behaviors during subsequent training.
Abstract: RECENT studies suggest that the direct and intrusive approach of reinforcement techniques is effective in significantly increasing the verbal and nonverbal behavioral repertoires of autistic children. 1-3 Using these methods of behavior modification with two mute autistic children, Hingtgen, et al 4 found that a three-week intensive imitative traning period resulted in substantially increased attending responses, the establishment of a large number of verbal and nonverbal imitative behaviors, and the development of more complex behaviors during subsequent training. Since food rewards were used extensively during training, the observed gains in behavior suggested that at least some of the behavioral deficiencies identified with infantile autism might be due to poor motivation for attending to appropriate cues. Their previous nonattention could be partially the result of an inadequacy of social stimuli to serve as rewards for autistic children. In spite of increased motivation however

36 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The literature pertaining to the use of operant-training procedures with psychotic children is reviewed and Ferster's concept of "behavioral deficit" is discussed as the explicit theoretical framework that can most parsimoniously govern these behavior analyses and subsequent modification programs.
Abstract: The literature pertaining to the use of operant-training procedures with psychotic children is reviewed. Ferster's concept of \"behavioral deficit\" is discussed as the explicit theoretical framework that can most parsimoniously govern these behavior analyses and subsequent modification programs. With relatively simple and communicable methods, beneficial results have been rapidly achieved, even by nonprofessional workers. Despite some lack of experimental rigor, the evidence is interpreted as strongly supportive of a social-learning model of severely pathological behavior and an operant-training model of therapy. A simplified etiological hypothesis is offered, and the issue of generality of adaptive change is discussed. Emphasis is placed upon attentional reorientation and the acquistion of elementary \"learning strategies.\

33 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compared the performance of speaking and non-speaking children and subnormal controls on visual discrimination tasks, and found that tasks which could be solved through the use of kinaesthetic, brightness or size cues did not differentiate between the groups, while those which involved shape differences and directional orientation did.
Abstract: Psychotic speaking and non-speaking children and subnormal controls were compared on visual discrimination tasks Tasks which could be solved through the use of kinaesthetic, brightness or size cues did not differentiate between the groups, while those which involved shape differences and directional orientation did

25 citations