Here we describe the performance of children with autism, their siblings, and typically developing children using the Florida Apraxia Battery. Children with autism showed the lowest performance in all sections of the test. They were mostly impaired in pantomime actions execution on imitation and on verbal command, and in imitation of meaningless gestures. Interestingly, a correlation was found between performance in pantomime actions and the severity of social behavior deficits. We conclude that the presence of a rigid internal model prevents the execution of an exact copy of the observed pantomime actions and that the deficit in imitation of meaningless gestures is most likely due to a deficit in the mechanisms responsible for visuomotor transformations.

Failure in Pantomime Action Execution Correlates with the Severity of Social Behavior Deficits in Children with Autism: A Praxis Study

CANTALUPO, Gaetano;
2015-01-01

Abstract

Here we describe the performance of children with autism, their siblings, and typically developing children using the Florida Apraxia Battery. Children with autism showed the lowest performance in all sections of the test. They were mostly impaired in pantomime actions execution on imitation and on verbal command, and in imitation of meaningless gestures. Interestingly, a correlation was found between performance in pantomime actions and the severity of social behavior deficits. We conclude that the presence of a rigid internal model prevents the execution of an exact copy of the observed pantomime actions and that the deficit in imitation of meaningless gestures is most likely due to a deficit in the mechanisms responsible for visuomotor transformations.
2015
Children with autism; Florida Apraxia Battery; Imitation; Meaningless gestures; Motor deficits; Pantomime action
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
2015 - Gizzonio et al. - Failure in Pantomime Action Execution in ASD - J Autism Dev Disord.pdf

non disponibili

Licenza: Accesso ristretto
Dimensione 969 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
969 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11562/930047
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? 10
  • Scopus 33
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 30
social impact