Imitation, Theory of Mind and Related Activities in Autism: An Observational Study of Spontaneous Behaviour in Everyday Contexts

Systematic naturalist observations of imitation, theory of mind and other related activities (play and social contact) were conducted for five groups of subjects. The groups comprised children with autism, adults with autism, children with mixed learning disabilities, and normally developing 3- to 4-year-olds and 5- to 6-year-olds. Very little imitation was observed in any group other than the 3- to 4-year- old normal children, making it difficult to draw any conclusion about the specificity and universality of a deficit in spontaneous imitation. However, autistic subjects showed less interaction with peers, more manipulative activity, less symbolic play and less evidence of understanding mental states. The quality of these behaviours, when they did occur, also differed between groups. Comparisons across school and play situations indicated no major situational differences. The implications of the results are discussed with regard to Rogers and Pennington’s intersubjectivity theory of autism.