Imitation and autism

Children learn many skills through imitation. An important example is the development of language, where imitation of social and communicative behaviors plays a critical role. It is widely reported in the literature that children with autism have an imitation deficit. This paper presents a study on the effect of robotic versus human intervention on the imitation skills of a child with autism. Through a single-subject alternating treatment design, a first step towards answering the question whether a child with autism better imitates a human or a plain robot model is given. Results of this experiment show that the child behaves differently with the human and the robot models, being more tolerant with the latter. The results are discussed in relation to different types of imitation skills, namely mimicry, goal emulation, emulation learning, and imitation. Imitation and autism The relative failure to imitate others’ actions is an early-appearing feature of autism (Williams, Whiten & Singh, 2004). It may signal the failure of fundamental mechanisms that are necessary for a range of social-communicative functions (Smith & Bryson, 2007). The inability to imitate influences the acquisition of other adaptive skills, which consequently must be explicitly taught (Smith & Bryson, 2007). Toth, Munson, Meltzoff, & Dawson (2006) assessed functional and symbolic toy play skills with 60 three and four year old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). They found that joint attention and imitation are important ‘‘starter set’’ skills that set the stage for social and communicative exchanges in which language can develop. Children with autism with better toy play and imitation abilities at age 4 acquired communication skills at a faster rate than those with less developed abilities. Robotic intervention may be beneficial for children with autism because robots are more predictable and present simpler stimuli (e.g., facial expressions) 1 The work of Pedro Encarnação was done during a sabbatical at the University of Alberta and at the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, and was supported in part by a FCT Fellowship.