Sensorimotor functioning and communication in mute autistic children

Abstract

There were two purposes underlying this study: to describe the sensorimotor functioning of mute autistic children and to relate their sensorimotor performance to nonverbal communication. Twelve mute children, diagnosed autistic, ranging from 4 years 9 months to 12 years of age, were administered four scales of sensorimotor development from the Uzgiris and Hunt (1975) series: object permanence, gestural imitation, means for obtaining environmental events, and causality. Subjects performed most poorly on the imitation scale with 9 of 12 performing below Piaget's fifth sensorimotor stage. In contrast, performance was highest on the object permanence scale: No child scored below Stage V. Regarding the subjects' non-scales and Stage III on the imitation scale appeared to form minimal prerequisites for intentional communication in a variety of situations. Finally, none of the subjects, even those with relatively complete sensorimotor development, spontaneously used what Bates (1976) has called "protodeclarative" gestures to point out or show objects to adults. The absence of protodeclarative gestures may represent a qualitatively distinct pattern of prelinguistic development in certain autistic children.

Hand Leading and Hand Taking Gestures in Autism and Typically Developing Children

“…The study presents, however, no data from typical children to back this assertion. Curcio (1978) reported that the children with autism who used these gestures always performed them without eye contact and suggested that they were primitive requesting strategies similar to those found by Piaget (1937) in typical infants at 8-12 months of age. Such contact gestures would reflect a lack of understanding that other agents are autonomous and need no mechanical activation.…”

Joint Attention and Attachment in Toddlers with Autism

“…Children with autism show deficiencies in joint attention behaviors (Curcio 1978;Loveland and Landry 1986;Mundy et al 1986;Wetherby and Prutting 1984). In research on autism, 'joint attention' however tends to refer to just a few of the joint attention skills such as 'gaze following,' 'pointing' behavior' and 'mutual gazing' or 'joint visual attention' (Carpenter et al 2002).…”

Reconhecimento facial e autismo

“…O uso de gestos com finalidade comunicativa também está comprometido nessas crianças [14][15][16] , da mesma forma que a compreensão e produção de expressões faciais comunicativas. Esse dado é visualizado em nosso estudo quando notamos diferenças, estatisticamente significativas, entre o grupo de crianças autistas e o de crianças normais, em que pese o fato de as crianças autistas apresentarem maior idade cronológica e nível intelectual compatível com deficiência mental leve.…”