Visual self-recognition in autistic children: developmental relationships.
Employing a mirror procedure, 52 autistic children (CA = 3-7 to 12-8, means = 7-7) were tested for visual self-recognition. Substantial behavioral and psychometric data were collected from school records, teacher interviews, and classroom observations. Of the 52 children, 36 (69%) showed evidence of mirror self-recognition, while 16 (31%) failed to give clear indications of recognizing their mirror images. The 2 groups did not differ on CA. Severity of language impairment appeared to be a major factor differentiating the 2 groups: those who failed to show evidence of visual self-recognition were more likely than those who did show evidence of visual recognition to be mute or lacking in communicative speech (p less than .001). Other indices of impairment indicated that the children who showed the capacity for visual self-recognition had higher levels of functioning. The results are discussed in terms of an organizational perspective. This perspective argues that the study of atypical populations may elucidate the process of development by describing the coordination or sequential organization of different behavioral systems.
D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001828:Body Image; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D014796:Visual Perception