title: Examining correlates of cooperation in autism: Imitation, joint attention, and understanding intentions.
abstract: The goal of the current study was to examine the contribution of three early social skills that may provide a foundation for cooperative performance in autism: (1) imitation, (2) joint attention, and (3) understanding of other people's intentions regarding actions on objects. Fourteen children with autistic disorder (AD) and 15 children with other developmental disabilities (DDs) matched on non-verbal developmental age (AD, mean 27.7, SD 9.8; DD, mean 33.4, SD 11.1) and verbal developmental age (AD, mean 21.5, SD 12.3; DD, mean 28.4, SD 11.0) participated in the study. Children with autism showed poorer performance on imitation and joint attention measures, but not on the intentionality task. Multiple regression analyses showed that imitation skills and joint attention contributed independently to cooperation, above and beyond the understanding of intentions of actions on objects.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Davis, CA, USA. ccolombi@umich.edu
authors.forename: Costanza
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Colombi
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liebal
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tomasello
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: Felix
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Warneken
authors.forename: Sally J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Rogers
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D033182:Intention; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D018187:Personal Construct Theory