Learning of skilled movements via imitation in ASD.
Danielle McAuliffe, Yi Zhao, Ajay S Pillai and 5 others
PMID 31876983WHAT IT FOUND
Children with autism imitated novel gestures less accurately than peers.
Their learning curves were flatter early on, catching up by the fourth repetition. This specific pattern of slow initial learning predicted worse motor planning skills and higher autism symptom severity.
Key findings
01Children with ASD showed poorer imitation performance across trials, with significant differences at each repetition compared to typically developing peers.
02The shape of the learning curve, specifically the rate of improvement during practice, explained about 66% of the variation in clinical praxis (motor planning) scores within the ASD group.
03A steeper learning curve (faster improvement) was associated with lower autism symptom severity scores in the ASD group.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot prove that altered learning causes praxis deficits or autism symptoms; it only shows an association. The learning task was short (single session), which may not reflect how skills are acquired over months or years in real life. The sample size was small, and the analysis for the causal models used slightly fewer participants (13 ASD, 20 TD) due to missing data. Children with ASD were allowed to have co-occurring ADHD or anxiety, which may have influenced attention or performance during the task.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was supported by the National Institute of Health.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the finding that children with ASD 'caught up' by the fourth repetition as evidence that their learning mechanism is intact. The study found that the specific shape of the early learning curve (the slower initial acquisition) was the significant predictor of clinical motor and social deficits, even if total improvement over four trials looked similar to peers.