Gesture Imitation Performance and Visual Exploration in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
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 inconsiste...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders Vol. 56; no. 2; pp. 695 - 709 |
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
| Formato: | pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Springer Nature
Feb2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=191290395&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 191290395 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 01623257 AUT jtl: Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders issn: 01623257 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Feb2026 vid: 56 iid: 2 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature place: New York, New York artinfo: ui: 191290395 180264550 191290395 191290395 10.1007/s10803-024-06595-w 191290395 ppf: 695 ppct: 14 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Gesture Imitation Performance and Visual Exploration in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. aug: au: Latrèche, Kenza Kojovic, Nada Pittet, Irène Natraj, Shreyasvi Franchini, Martina Smith, Isabel M. Schaer, Marie affil: https://ror.org/01swzsf04 Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, 1206, Geneva, Switzerland sug: subj: Autism Spectrum Disorder In Infancy and Childhood Imitative Behavior Evaluation Body Language Evaluation Visual Perception Evaluation Attention Evaluation Eye Movement Measurements Funding Source Switzerland Human Male Female Child, Preschool Prospective Studies Videorecording Task Performance and Analysis Facial Expression Emotions T-Tests Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient Data Analysis Software Descriptive Statistics Scales Child, Preschool: 2-5 years Male Female ab: 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. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: pictorial research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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