Ingersoll Brooke, Lewis Elizabeth, Kroman Emily
Department of Psychology, Lewis & Clark College, 0615 SW Palatine Hill Road, Portland, OR 97219, USA.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2007 Sep;37(8):1446-56. doi: 10.1007/s10803-006-0221-z.
Children with autism exhibit deficits in the imitation and spontaneous use of descriptive gestures. Reciprocal Imitation Training (RIT), a naturalistic imitation intervention, has ben shown to increase object imitation skills in young children with autism. A single-subject, multiple-baseline design across five young children with autism was used to determine whether RIT could be adapted to target the imitation of descriptive gestures. All participants increased their imitation of gestures in the treatment setting and on a structured imitation assessment. Gains generalized to a novel therapist, setting, and materials and maintained at a 1-month follow-up. Three participants also increased their spontaneous use of descriptive gestures. These results provide support for the effectiveness of a naturalistic intervention for teaching gesture imitation.
患有自闭症的儿童在模仿和自发使用描述性手势方面存在缺陷。相互模仿训练（RIT）是一种自然主义的模仿干预方法，已被证明可以提高患有自闭症的幼儿的物体模仿技能。采用单被试、对五名患有自闭症的幼儿进行多基线设计，以确定RIT是否可以调整以针对描述性手势的模仿。所有参与者在治疗环境和结构化模仿评估中都增加了对手势的模仿。这种进步推广到了新的治疗师、环境和材料中，并在1个月的随访中得以保持。三名参与者还增加了对描述性手势的自发使用。这些结果为自然主义干预在教授手势模仿方面的有效性提供了支持。
