An examination of the state of imitation research in children with autism: Issues of definition and methodology.

Sevlever, M. & Gillis, J. (2010). An examination of the state of imitation research in children with autism: Issues of definition and methodology. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 31, 976-984doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2010.04.014.

Sevlever and Gillis (2010) have written a lovely review on imitation research. The authors highlight the “conflicting theoretical explanations of imitative difficulties” among individuals with autism (p. 976), and reported that the “extent of imitative difficulties in children with autism remains largely unknown” due to “inconsistent operational findings” (p. 977). The author comments on the work of Tomasello (1990) who noted differences using describing terms of imitation and mimicry, and comments that “autism research adheres to amore colloquial definition of imitation” (p. 977). The author suggested that more objective approaches toward evaluating imitation through a standardized methodology may offer generalization and greater impact across studies.

The author did mention that many variables such as the a host of sensory impairments may play a role in offering a generalized protocol as each child with autism is so different in nature. So questions remain in terms of how imitation is measured, and what stimuli is used. Why do children with autism consistently perform worse than neuro-typical children when it comes to imitation? Are imitation tasks boring or not of interest to children with autism? Do children with autism see no point in imitating others? Is there a disruption in the visual motor system that may inhibit functional imitation?

As a music therapist I find that children with autism are able to imitate musical sounds in various ways. While motor imitation in general may be impaired – the ability to imitate a motor act on a drum per se is completed within the first trial. If I simply moved my arms as if playing the drum, such imitation would not occur. The trick is finding a way to measure such imitative abilities – with a clear definition of terminology, methodology, and analysis procedure.