Investigating Peer Interaction during Play in Children with Autism Using a New Ecologically Valid Paradigm

Background: Children with autism often exhibit deficits in social interaction including spontaneous play behavior with peers.  While the specific nature of these deficits is well documented there is a lack of research into the contexts and temporal relationships of interactions and behaviors that most acutely manifest them.

Objectives: The current study was designed to examine social behavior between typically developing children and those with autism using an ecologically valid playground setting.  In addition to traditional analysis based on examining frequency and duration of target behaviors, a transactional analysis of temporal and context based information was employed. The transactional method allows examination of events both in terms of time (i.e., temporal context, chronolology) as well as behavioral sequences (i.e., response circumstances, responses across multiple participants). As a result, the method can reveal relationships between superficially unrelated behaviors based on contextual clues.

Methods: The pilot study included 27 children ages 8-to-12 years of age with autism (n=13) and typical development (n=14) that participated in a peer interaction paradigm. Each twenty minute playground sequence included three children: a neurotypical child, a neurotypical confederate and a child with high functioning autism. Recording was accomplished via four cameras, with combined coverage of all playground areas, and lavalier microphones worn by each participant. Sound and video mixed records were subsequently coded using Noldus software.  A sophisticated, detailed coding of interaction and play sequences was developed for this investigation. Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance were used.

Results: Children with autism engaged in fewer interactions during solicited gross motor and directed play than neurotypical children F(1,25) = 4.21, p<0.05 and less cooperative play F(1,25)=4.12, p<0.05.  No differences were found in overall gesturing or avoidant behavior.  It is important to note that observed unequal variances suggest increased variability in some aspects of social responsivity in the autism group.

Conclusions: The findings indicate reduced interactivity in children with high functioning autism and these patterns more intensely manifest during periods featuring solicited interaction from the neurotypical peers.  The data further suggests that within the autism group, subgroups emerge revealing distinct social interactivity profiles. The behavioral results will be compared to biological indices of stress and symptom profiles as part of a larger study.