AbstrAbstr Abstr Abstr Abstrac ac ac ac act: t: t: t: t: Autism is a disorder in which lack of interaction and communication with the other appears as the main characteristic. In the late 70's and early 80's, a great interest was raised by studies that considered deficits in the area of social relationships as primary to the emergence of the syndrome. From previous research on the relationship between early imitation and early establishment of social relations, some researchers began to assume that imitation deficits presented by the autistics could be related to deficits in social interactions presented by these individuals. The present study proposes to review international literature on the major contributions that aimed to investigate the presence of an imitation deficit and its possible causal role in autism.
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