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Imitation of Pretend Play Acts by Children with Autism and Down Syndrome

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Abstract

Although there has recently been considerable research interest in the difficulties that children with autism have engaging in pretend play, little attention has been paid to the ability of these children to imitate pretend play acts. Furthermore, suggestions that children with Down syndrome have relatively advanced abilities in pretend play have not been accompanied by an examination of their capacity to imitate pretend play. Three groups of children: autistic, Down syndrome, and normally developing were studied for their capacity to imitate single pretend acts and a series of pretend acts that formed scripts. While the children with autism were surprisingly better than the other two groups on the single-scheme task, they demonstrated specific difficulties on the multischeme task. Results are discussed in relation to current theories of autism and the notion of imitation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Kent at Canterbury, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NP, United Kingdom

    Sarah Libby

  2. University of Hertfordshire, USA

    Stuart Powell & David Messer

  3. University of Birmingham, USA

    Rita Jordan

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  1. Sarah Libby
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  2. Stuart Powell
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  3. David Messer
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  4. Rita Jordan
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Libby, S., Powell, S., Messer, D. et al. Imitation of Pretend Play Acts by Children with Autism and Down Syndrome. J Autism Dev Disord 27, 365–383 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025801304279

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025801304279

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