Comments on: An Imitation Deficit

By: Laura

Laura — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:02:42 +0000

I used to ask doctors if there was such a thing as “extreme” imitation because that’s much of what it seemed my daughter did – imitating without purpose or understanding. She would copy many of the actions or words she observed (and she was very observant even if she didn’t make eye contact, play with me/toys, want to be held, etc), without being able to generalize the action or thought behind the words. It seemed like she knew she needed to achieve an end result and could see how to get there, but not all the thoughts or reasons in between and so when she had to repeat the action or words later, independently, she wasn’t able to.

She’s great at imitation (when she’s motivated), it’s when she has to act independently where she struggles. I’ve never fully understood this…

By: Shawn3k

Shawn3k — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:58:06 +0000

For us it all centers around anything Spongebob, Lego Starwars/Indiana Jones or anything medieval in nature…if he knows that one of these two things, will be the end result of him attending to something…he makes a noticeable effort at paying attention. More and more, he looks directly at a person, when they are speaking to him. He has never really done the looking out of the corner of his eyes – he just straight up would look away from you or down…with frequent glances right at the source of what should be his focus. I notice now, that he does this now more, when he is “getting in trouble.” LOL. He passionately loves certain things…and while I hate to use them in a stick and carrot fashion…he will willingly work toward these “privilieges.” At one point…I had printed out the picture of the game Lego Star Wars and gave it to his teachers. If he had a good day at school (the definition of that was fairly broad)…they would put it in his folder to come home. This meant, he got to play that game with Dad on the computer. If it wasn’t in his folder…he did not. Now my son loves nothing more, than a good session of vegging out with Daddy on the computer…and HATED when he did not have that laminated picture in his folder! Today, we still employ a modified form of this encouragement. He also will work very hard for his little sister…he takes his job as a big brother seriously and tries esp. hard to be a role model for her. Sometimes, I worry…that she may pass him on many things…but they are so close, I know that he will always be her hero. These two are peas in a pod…he has been smitten with his little sister since day one…likewise for her. I think in many ways, she has benefited him by her persistence in drawing out the abilities we know are inside of him. She has been as beneficial as any teacher, if not more so.

By: Natalie

Natalie — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:45:26 +0000

I truly appreciate your reply. (I found your blog a few weeks ago and, to me, it’s the most well-wriiten, informative Autism blog I’ve ever encountered. I’m grateful you’re using your talent as a voice for the other side of Autism.)

With my daughter, her attention is not always connected to eye contact. She’s very active. She darts. She paces. Redirecting her when she gets in “this mode” is incredibly difficult.

The only way I can keep her attention or try to engage her — fully — is to have an incredibly powerful reinforcer behind the activity.

And her lack of focus/attention occurs in general/natural settings, too.

I’ve often worried that she might also suffer from ADD/ADHD since the two disorders seem to have so much in common. But, I’m too reluctant to try drugs.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:14:28 +0000

In the past one reason I thought my son was not paying attention was because he tends to look out of the corners of his eyes. I’ve since learned that he is paying attention when he does this — is trying to pay attention. Have you found any methods effective for helping your daughter to better focus?

By: Natalie

Natalie — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 23:41:16 +0000

“It also showed that children with autism paid just as much attention to the action being performed as the other children in the study, ruling out previous hypotheses about poor attention to the task.”

hmmmm… not the case with my daugther. I place equal blame on poor imitiation skills and poor attentin to task.

Then again; no one with Autism is alike.

By: Marla

Marla — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 19:13:26 +0000

Some of the advice doctors gave me when M was a toddler was beyond terrible. They loved to dish out this advice but would never help us reach a diagnosis and belittled me every step of the way. Especially in regards to her CVS. Amazingly enough.

Back then I had no idea that M was parroting me. Looking back at our videos I realize we were so concerned with her behavioral challenges and insomnia and vomiting that we were not even paying attention to her lack of speech.

Charlie and M have both come a long way since those early years. You and me are good moms. No doubt about it. Our kids are awesome.

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:16:47 +0000

@Phil Schwarz, very “faux” indeed—thanks for the link to Meyerding’s piece. Having noted various behaviors of other pre-adolescent boys, I feel quite lucky that my own son shows no inclination to imitate their “typical behavior.”

By: bullet

bullet — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:34:44 +0000

“I’m not sure what looking at a person’s eyes has to do with imitation. My daughter does not imitate motions. I had read in an article that one difference between those who are low-functioning differ from those with “simple” delayed mental development are games such as the “Wheels on the Bus.” The autistic child will move the hands of the other player according to what is being sung, the non-autistic child will either play “properly” or not at all.”

Tom still likes to move other people’s hands around to the songs, but he can copy the actions on his own as well now.
He also likes to cover my hands over my eyes and then pull them away to play peekaboo.

By: Phil Schwarz

Phil Schwarz — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 04:48:40 +0000

I just had a Jane Meyerding moment, looking at the title of this blog article again.

Jane is one of my favorite writers in the autistic community, both for her online essays and “snippets”, and for her contributions to Jean Kearns Miller’s anthology Women From Another Planet? and Dinah Murray’s anthology Coming Out Asperger.

Every so often Jane writes that she encounters a phrase or a sentence that she parses differently than the usual expected way, sometimes to humorous effect.

So when I reread the title, I parsed it with “deficit” as the noun: an imitation deficit, a faux impairment .

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 03:30:21 +0000

@CS, thank you for noting that. I’m not autistic and I write as a mother who’s different in various ways of her own.

@Harold L Doherty, very best wishes to Conor and your family.

To all, thank you…..what can I say…..being Charlie’s mother has been humbling and made me tremendously aware of my own limitations. And tremendously glad to know that you’re all out there.