Exploring the boundaries of emotional responsiveness in young children with autism sepectrum disorders

The emotional deficits of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are often striking. These have been underlined even in the earliest formal reports of this condition, and more recent research suggests the presence of extensive deficits in even those individuals who are otherwise cognitively capable. While the assessment of emotional skills in young children with ASD is complicated by their limited verbal activities, the non-verbal paradigm (Sigman, Kasari, Kwon, & Yirmiya, 1992) has proven to be an invaluable tool. In this paradigm, children are presented with naturalistic in-vivo emotional displays, and their reactions toward these are observed and coded. The results of studies using this method have also evidence responsiveness deficits in the group. Nevertheless, the boundaries of emotional deficit in ASD remain unclear, and it is regarding this question of boundaries that this thesis aim to further our understanding. Two broad studies combine qualitative and quantitative methods here to examine the skill strengths and deficits of young children with ASD at varying level of functioning. Study 1 presents parent-report data regarding children’s spontaneous and everyday responsiveness the results obtained in this more ‘natural’ study served to confirm those of prior experimental research, with parents of children with ASD were equally capable as were comparison parents of recalling and describing instances in which their children had responded appropriately toward others’ emotions. Qualitative analysis of these descriptions revealed very few group differences, suggesting that when children with ASD do respond to others’ emotions, their reactions are quite typical and appropriate, and elicited in the usual way. The design of study 2 incorporated the information provided by parents in Study 1 so as to expand upon the prior use of Sigman et al.’s(1992) non-verbal paradigm in conducting a systematic exploration of the boundaries of emotional responsiveness in young children with ASD. Child behaviour samples were obtained in response to a variety of emotion scenarios, occurring across a number of contextual manipulations. Again, in line with past research, global responsiveness deficits were seen from the children with ASD. These children were not, however, at floor-level in their responsiveness, with spared aspects apparent from the detailed behavioural coding conducted. Recruitment of a large and heterogeneous sample of children with ASD also permitted assessment of the responsiveness of children at higher- and lower-levels of functioning. The results of these comparisons indicated that 3while appropriate responsiveness was more often shown by the group with the more spared socio-communicative skills, evidence of appropriate responsiveness was found even in the less able group. Overall, the results of this thesis support the notion of a global responsiveness deficit in young children with ASD. However, the opportunity afforded by the non-verbal paradigm for experimental rigour in the assessment of moderating factors, along with the ability of parents to report on the spontaneous behaviours of children in their everyday environments, combined her to provide the basis for a more detailed discussion of the boundaries of such a deficit. Just as researchers have combined the primary cognitive theories of ASD to explain may of the clinical feature seen in this condition, here too these are drawn together in a discussion of the current research finding, regarding the evidenced capacity of intact emotional responsiveness in individuals who have a marked global deficit in this domain of functioning