The Development of Imitation Abilities in Children with Autism

Background: The research on imitation in autism over the last 30 years has consistently reported impaired imitative abilities in children with ASD at all ages. However, little is known about the developmental course of imitation skills in ASD

Objectives: The aim of the study is:
1)      to analyze the developmental profile of imitation skills in children with autism by examining their imitation abilities at three different ages (3, 5, and 8)
2)      to analyze group differences in imitation abilities between children with autism and children without autism at three different ages
3)      to determine the contribution of skills  in social and cognitive development in children with and without autism
4)      to determine the contribution of early social and cognitive skills in the development of imitation abilities in children with and without autism
Methods: A cohort of 27 children with autism, 35 children with a developmental disability and 20 typically developing subjects matched for age were tested on a series of imitation tasks when they were 3 (Time 1), 5 (Time 2) and 8 years old (Time 3). Measures of social, cognitive and motor skills were also collected at all ages.
Results: At Time 1 children with autism imitate less accurately than typically developing children and children with developmental disabilities. Preliminary analyses on a subgroup of participants suggest that over the time all groups show significant improvements, however at Time 3 children with autism are still less accurate than typically developing children in imitating. Analyses on the developmental disability group are in progress. Across the entire sample imitation performances at different Time points are highly correlated even when group appartenence is controlled for. In the autism group, severity of symptoms, cognitive, verbal and motor skills at Time 1 are associated to difficulties in imitation at Time 1 and 2 .
Conclusions: Children with autism show difficulties imitating others at age 3. Their abilities improve over time but are still deficient 5 years after the first assessment. In progress analyses will analyze what factors are related to both group and individual differences