The Effects of Auditory-Visual and Visual Stimuli on Imitative Sensorimotor Responses in Autistic Children

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of auditory-visual and visual stimuli on imitative sensorimotor responses in autistic children. Twenty-five subjects were assigned to one of two testing conditions in which they were asked to imitate five tasks. In the auditory-visual condition, subjects were presented with both the visual stimuli (experimenter playing the instruments) and the auditory stimuli (musical sound produced from playing the instruments). In the visual condition, subjects were presented with the visual stimuli alone. Accuracy in imitation was evaluated in tempo and the number of motions. A statistically significant difference was found between the two groups of subjects in their imitation of number of motions. The auditory-visual group scored higher. No statistically significant difference was found between the two groups in their imitation of tempo, nor between results of subjects who had previous music-related contact with the experimenter and those who had not.

Note: sensorimotor-responses, auditory-visual-stimuli.

Keyword(s): auditory, auditory-stimuli, autism, autistic-child, visual-stimuli, imitation, imitative-behavior.

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