Integrating autistic perspectives into autism science: A role for autistic autobiographies.

LAY ABSTRACT: Autism science faces challenges in how to think about autism and what questions to focus on, and sometimes contributes to stigma against autistic people. We examine one way that non-autistic researchers may start to combat these challenges: by reading and reflecting on autistic people's descriptions of their personal experiences (e.g. autobiographies) of what it is like to be autistic. In this article, we review some of the advantages and challenges of this approach and how it may help combat some of the challenges currently facing autism science by focusing studies on the questions autistic people find most important, counteracting stereotypes, and increasing understanding of autistic experiences.

Still Infantilizing Autism? An Update and Extension of Stevenson et al. (2011).

Background: Stevenson et al. (2011) examined photographs and language used to represent autism on chapter websites for the Autism Society of America, autism charity websites, movies, television shows, fictional books, and U.S. new stories and found that they overwhelmingly used children to represent autism. Methods: Using Stevenson et al.'s methods, we tested the hypothesis that, a decade on, these same sources would now include more representations of autistic adults. We statistically compared our findings with theirs. Results: On the chapter websites of the Autism Society of America and in fictional books, the hypothesis was supported in that there were more representations of adults (19%-20%) than in the original study (5%-9%), but there were still far more representations of children than of adults. In movies, television shows, and U.S. news stories, there were equal numbers of representations of autistic adults and autistic children. Conclusions: These findings suggest a move away from infantilizing autism in some domains, but they rely on a narrow construal of "infantilizing": the underrepresentation of autistic adults in media. However, even when autistic adults are represented, they may still be infantilized in various ways. Future research will need to examine the impact of infantilizing media on both autistic and non-autistic people, and other ways in which these representations are limited (e.g., gender and race/ethnicity).

Why is this an important issue?: A prior study showed that most representations of autistic people in the United States portray children. It is important that the public not perceive autism as a disability that only affects children. If autistic adults are not adequately represented, they and their needs become invisible. What was the purpose of this study?: We wanted to see if representations of autistic adults in the United States have increased in the decade since the original study was published. What did the researchers do?: We counted the numbers of representations of autistic adults and autistic children on the chapter websites of the Autism Society of America, autism charity websites, in fictional books, movies, and television shows with autistic characters, and in U.S. news stories that mentioned autistic people. We then compared these numbers with the numbers from the original study. What were the results of the study?: On the chapter websites of the Autism Society of America and in fictional books, there were more representations of adults than in the original study, but there were still far more representations of children than of adults. In movies and television shows, as well as U.S. news stories, the number of representations of autistic adults was equal to those of children. What do these findings add to what was already known?: These findings show that there has been some progress in increased representations of autistic adults in the United States. Our study cannot tell us what exactly has contributed to this change, but we speculate that the rise of autistic self-advocacy is the most likely candidate, as it has trickle-down effects such as hiring of autism consultants for movies and television shows and journalists' increased use of autistic self-advocates as sources. What are potential weaknesses in the study?: Our analyses, as in the original study, are limited to depictions of autism in the United States and examine only one aspect of representation (age). Gender, race/ethnicity, and other dimensions of autistic representations need to be examined in future research. How will these findings help autistic adults now or in the future?: Knowing about representation of autistic adults is important because of the many potential benefits of accurate representation, such as access to accommodations and resources beyond childhood (e.g., jobs, healthcare). Positive media representations may also help reduce stigma and stereotypes.

Experiencing social connection: A qualitative study of mothers of nonspeaking autistic children.

Autistic children do not consistently show conventional signs of social engagement, which some have interpreted to mean that they are not interested in connecting with other people. If someone does not act like they are interested in connecting with you, it may make it difficult to feel connected to them. And yet, some parents report feeling strongly connected to their autistic children. We conducted phenomenological interviews with 13 mothers to understand how they experienced connection with their 5- to 14-year-old nonspeaking autistic children. Mothers of nonspeaking autistic children represent a unique group in which to study connection because their children both may not seem interested in connecting with them and have limited ability to communicate effectively using speech, a common way people connect with each other. The mothers in this study interpreted a range of child behaviors-some unconventional, but many conventional-as signs that their children were interested in connecting with them, (re)framed child behaviors that could undermine connection as caused by factors unrelated to the relationship, and expressed several convictions that may help build and sustain connection in the face of uncertainty about the meaning of their children's behavior. Even though their autistic children may not consistently act in conventional socially oriented ways, these mothers reported perceiving their children's behavior as embedded within an emotionally reciprocal relationship.

Being versus appearing socially uninterested: Challenging assumptions about social motivation in autism.

Progress in psychological science can be limited by a number of factors, not least of which are the starting assumptions of scientists themselves. We believe that some influential accounts of autism rest on a questionable assumption that many of its behavioral characteristics indicate a lack of social interest - an assumption that is flatly contradicted by the testimony of many autistic people themselves. In this article, we challenge this assumption by describing alternative explanations for four such behaviors: (a) low levels of eye contact, (b) infrequent pointing, (c) motor stereotypies, and (d) echolalia. The assumption that autistic people's unusual behaviors indicate diminished social motivation has had profound and often negative effects on the ways they are studied and treated. We argue that understanding and supporting autistic individuals will require interrogating this assumption, taking autistic testimony seriously, considering alternative explanations for unusual behaviors, and investigating unconventional - even idiosyncratic - ways in which autistic individuals may express their social interest. These steps are crucial, we believe, for creating a more accurate, humane, and useful science of autism.

Two-year-olds' understanding of self-symbols.

This study investigated 48 2.5-year-olds' ability to map from their own body to a two-dimensional self-representation and also examined relations between parents' talk about body representations and their children's understanding of self-symbols. Children participated in two dual-representation tasks in which they were asked to match body parts between a symbol and its referent. In one task, they used a self-symbol and in the other they used a symbol for a doll. Participants were also read a book about body parts by a parent. As a group, children found the self-symbol task more difficult than the doll-task; however, those whose parents explicitly pointed out the relation between their children's bodies and the symbols in the book performed better on the self-symbol task. The findings demonstrate that 2-year-old children have difficulty comprehending a self-symbol, even when it is two-dimensional and approximately the same size as them, and suggest that parents' talk about self-symbols may facilitate their understanding.

Toddlers' imitative learning in interactive and observational contexts: the role of age and familiarity of the model.

Three experiments examined the effects of age and familiarity of a model on toddlers' imitative learning in observational contexts (Experiments 1, 2, and 3) and interactive contexts (Experiments 2 and 3). Experiment 1 (N=112 18-month-old toddlers) varied the age (child vs. adult) and long-term familiarity (kin vs. stranger) of the person who modeled the novel actions. Experiment 2 (N=48 18-month-olds and 48 24-month-olds) and Experiment 3 (N=48 24-month-olds) varied short-term familiarity with the model (some or none) and learning context (interactive or observational). The most striking findings were that toddlers were able to learn a new action from observing completely unfamiliar strangers who did not address them and were far less likely to imitate an unfamiliar model who directly interacted with them. These studies highlight the robustness of toddlers' observational learning and reveal limitations of learning from unfamiliar models in interactive contexts.

Deficit or difference? Interpreting diverse developmental paths: an introduction to the special section.

How should differences between "typically developing" children and other populations be interpreted? To what extent should the emphasis be on advocating remediation for children who are on a developmental trajectory that differs from the norm versus embracing different developmental trajectories as equally valid contributions to the diversity of human experience? The 6 target articles and 2 commentaries in this special section offer a diverse set of perspectives on the tensions and responsibilities inherent in interpreting and acting on differences between children of different cultural, ethnic, linguistic, socioeconomic, and neurological backgrounds.

The development of social learning in interactive and observational contexts.

From the first year of life, imitative learning readily occurs in contexts where a demonstrator directly interacts with infants (i.e., "interactive contexts"), and at least by 18 months, imitation will also occur in third-party or observational contexts where infants witness a demonstration by another person that is not directed at them. However, it remains unclear whether imitation is differentially facilitated in these two contexts in young children. In the current experiment, we tested both imitation and emulation learning in younger (18 months) and older (24 months) infants in three different social learning conditions: interactive, social observational, and solitary observational. We found that the younger group imitated novel actions more after interactive demonstration than after solitary observational demonstration; older infants imitated equally in all conditions. Emulation occurred equally in all conditions for the younger group, but the older group emulated significantly less in the interactive condition than in the solitary observational condition. Furthermore, we found that mirror self-recognition was related to imitation in the solitary observational condition. These results suggest that imitation is initially facilitated by direct interaction but that by the end of the second year can occur just as easily in noninteractive contexts. This change may be dependent on developments in social cognition, in particular, the understanding of self-other equivalence.

Early humour production.

The current studies explored early humour as a complex socio-cognitive phenomenon by examining 2- and 3-year-olds' humour production with their parents. We examined whether children produced novel humour, whether they cued their humour, and the types of humour produced. Forty-seven parents were interviewed, and videotaped joking with their children. Other parents (N= 113) completed a survey. Parents reported children copy jokes during the first year of life, and produce novel jokes from 2 years. In play sessions, 3-year-olds produced mostly novel humorous acts; 2-year-olds produced novel and copied humorous acts equally frequently. Parents reported children smile, laugh, and look for a reaction when joking. In play sessions, 2- and 3-year-olds produced these behaviours more when producing humorous versus non-humorous acts. In both parent reports and play sessions, they produced novel object-based (e.g., underwear on head) and conceptual humour (e.g., 'pig says moo') and used wrong labels humorously (e.g., calling a cat a dog). Thus, parent report and child behaviour both confirm that young children produce novel humorous acts, and share their humour by smiling, laughing, and looking for a reaction.

Cognitive and linguistic correlates of early exposure to more than one language.

This chapter reviews recent studies of cognitive and linguistic correlates of exposure to two languages in infancy and early childhood. Most of the studies reviewed directly compare monolingual children to those who are exposed to two languages. The cognitive correlates include enhanced executive functioning (especially inhibitory control), and Theory of Mind. The linguistic correlates include smaller vocabularies in each language, different word-learning strategies, slower lexical access, and enhanced pragmatic and metalinguistic skills. Issues in interpreting group differences, in particular, whether such differences should be interpreted as deficits, are discussed.

Learning foreign labels from a foreign speaker: the role of (limited) exposure to a second language.

Three- and four-year-olds (N = 144) were introduced to novel labels by an English speaker and a foreign speaker (of Nordish, a made-up language), and were asked to endorse one of the speaker's labels. Monolingual English-speaking children were compared to bilingual children and English-speaking children who were regularly exposed to a language other than English. All children tended to endorse the English speaker's labels when asked 'What do you call this?', but when asked 'What do you call this in Nordish?', children with exposure to a second language were more likely to endorse the foreign label than monolingual and bilingual children. The findings suggest that, at this age, exposure to, but not necessarily immersion in, more than one language may promote the ability to learn foreign words from a foreign speaker.

Preschoolers joke with jokers, but correct foreigners.

Thirty- and 36-month-old English speakers' (N = 106) ability to produce jokes, distinguish between humorous and sincere intentions, and distinguish between English- and foreign-language speakers, was examined in two tasks. In the Giving task, an experimenter requested one of two familiar objects, and a confederate always gave her the wrong object. In the Naming task, the confederate mislabeled familiar objects. In the English-speaking conditions, the confederate laughed after doing the wrong thing (English-Humor) or said, 'There!' (English-Sincere). In the Foreign conditions, the French- or Italian-speaking confederate laughed (Foreign-Humor) or said, 'D'accord!' or 'Va bene!' (Foreign-Sincere). When preschoolers were subsequently requested to give and name the same objects and a new set of familiar objects they were significantly more likely to imitate and 'do the wrong thing' in the Humor versus Sincere, and in the English versus Foreign conditions.

Third-party social interaction and word learning from video.

In previous studies, very young children have learned words while "overhearing" a conversation, yet they have had trouble learning words from a person on video. In Study 1, 64 toddlers (mean age=29.8 months) viewed an object-labeling demonstration in 1 of 4 conditions. In 2, the speaker (present or on video) directly addressed the child, and in 2, the speaker addressed another adult who was present or was with her on video. Study 2 involved 2 follow-up conditions with 32 toddlers (mean age=30.4 months). Across the 2 studies, the results indicated that toddlers learned words best when participating in or observing a reciprocal social interaction with a speaker who was present or on video.

Orienting to third-party conversations.

Children as young as two years of age are able to learn novel object labels through overhearing, even when distracted by an attractive toy (Akhtar, 2005). The present studies varied the information provided about novel objects and examined which elements (i.e. novel versus neutral information and labels versus facts) toddlers chose to monitor, and what type of information they were more likely to learn. In Study 1, participants learned only the novel label and the novel fact containing a novel label. In Study 2, only girls learned the novel label. Neither girls nor boys learned the novel fact. In both studies, analyses of children's gaze patterns suggest that children who learned the new information strategically oriented to the third-party conversation.

Imitative learning from a third-party interaction: relations with self-recognition and perspective taking.

Young children's ability to learn something new from a third-party interaction may be related to the ability to imagine themselves in the third-party interaction. This imaginative ability presupposes an understanding of self-other equivalence, which is manifested in an objective understanding of the self and an understanding of others' subjective perspectives. The current study measured imitative learning of a novel action seen only in a third-party interaction, mirror self-recognition, and perspective taking in a group of 48 18- to 20-month-olds. Patterns of performance suggest that understanding self-other equivalence is related to third-party learning.

On Privileging the Role of Gaze in Infant Social Cognition.

Theories of early social-cognitive development privilege infants' use of gaze as a cue to others' attention and intentions. Mutual gaze is assumed to indicate social engagement, gaze following is believed to index understanding of others' attention, and gaze alternation (between an object and a caregiver) is used to assess joint attention. This article discusses other cues (e.g., vocal and postural) on which children in other cultures and atypically developing children in Western cultures probably rely. It proposes that it is quite likely that typically developing children in Western cultures also use nongaze cues-in conjunction with gaze-in their everyday interactions with others.

Two-year-olds' productivity with verbal inflections.

Previous research has examined children's ability to add inflections to nonsense words. The current experiments were designed to determine whether children, ranging in age from 1;9 to 2;10 (N = 34), could demonstrate productivity by dropping verbal inflections. In Experiment 1, children added -ed and -ing to novel stems, and dropped them from novel inflected forms and did so largely appropriately. In Experiment 2, they dropped -ing from verbs, but not from nouns, suggesting that when young children drop inflections they tend to do so appropriately, and not simply for ease of pronunciation.

Joint Attention and Vocabulary Development: A Critical Look.

Joint attention - parents' and children's coordinated attention to each other and to a third object or event - is believed to play a causal and critical role in early word learning. However, joint attention, as conventionally defined and measured, relies only on overt indicators of attention, is studied predominantly in the visual modality, and varies by culture. Moreover, word learning can occur without joint attention in typical development, in autistic development, and in Williams syndrome, and joint attention can occur without commensurate word learning in Down syndrome. Thus, the assumption that joint attention is a necessary and sufficient precursor to vocabulary learning is not universally supported.

Can 18-Month-Old Infants Learn Words by Listening In on Conversations?

Previous research has shown that children as young as 2 can learn words from 3rd-party conversations (Akhtar, Jipson, & Callanan, 2001). The focus of this study was to determine whether younger infants could learn a new word through overhearing. Novel object labels were introduced to 18-month-old infants in 1 of 2 conditions: directly by an experimenter or in the context of overhearing the experimenter use the word while interacting with another adult. The findings suggest that, when memory demands are not too high, 18-month-old infants can learn words through overhearing.