Lv ShaoLi, Xing Yu, Xu YanTing, Liu LinRu, Zhu HuiLin, Ye QianYing, Wang ChunMei, Zou XiaoBing, Deng HongZhu
Child Development and Behavior Center, Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Front Psychiatry. 2022 Jul 22;13:895029. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.895029. eCollection 2022.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by social communicative abnormalities. Deficits and delays in gestural communication are among the early deficits of ASD and also a major social modality in early caregiver-toddler interaction. Caregiver gestures have an important role in the cognitive and social development of children with ASD. Thus, it is urgent to further explore the role of caregiver gestures in early caregiver-toddler interaction. In this cross-sectional study, we observed the caregivers' gestures and responses of toddlers aged between 18 and 24 months during play (ASD = 44, TD = 29) and dining activities (ASD = 34, TD = 27). By observing the different frequencies and patterns of gestures by the caregiver-child interaction and the different proportions of children's responses to the caregiver's gestures, we found that, compared to caregivers of typically developing toddlers, caregivers of toddlers with ASD had fewer synchronized gestures and more unsynchronized gestures in the play activity and more supplementary gestures in dining activity. Toddlers with ASD produced more social responses to caregivers' synchronized gestures, whereas the use of synchronized gestures by the caregivers in caregiver-toddler interaction had a positive influence on social responses to toddlers with ASD. The findings suggest that effective use of gestures by caregivers during caregiver-toddler activities can improve children's social responses.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）的特征是社交沟通异常。手势交流方面的缺陷和延迟是ASD的早期缺陷之一，也是早期照顾者与幼儿互动中的一种主要社交方式。照顾者的手势对ASD儿童的认知和社交发展具有重要作用。因此，迫切需要进一步探索照顾者手势在早期照顾者与幼儿互动中的作用。在这项横断面研究中，我们观察了18至24个月大的幼儿在玩耍（ASD组44名，TD组29名）和用餐活动（ASD组34名，TD组27名）期间照顾者的手势以及幼儿的反应。通过观察照顾者与儿童互动中手势的不同频率和模式以及儿童对照顾者手势反应的不同比例，我们发现，与发育正常幼儿的照顾者相比，ASD幼儿的照顾者在玩耍活动中有更少的同步手势和更多的不同步手势，在用餐活动中有更多的补充手势。ASD幼儿对照顾者的同步手势产生更多的社交反应，而照顾者在与幼儿互动中使用同步手势对ASD幼儿的社交反应有积极影响。研究结果表明，照顾者在与幼儿活动期间有效使用手势可以改善儿童的社交反应。
