Development and Autism Part 5
Effects of Autistic Development in Childhood
Once toddlerhood has been outgrown, typically developing children have learned to find most social interactions rewarding, to communicate effectively, to share emotions with others, and to control and predict certain outcomes in their environment. Autistic children demonstrate an array of difficulties in all of the aforementioned skills due to their atypical development. Their inability to partake in early instances of joint attention, to share affective experiences, and to integrate information effectively leaves them with several deficiencies, which have social consequences.
For instance, children between 6 and 9 years of age were tested for their ability to produce anticipatory looks toward social stimuli. Those children without an autism diagnosis outperformed those with the diagnosis, thus, demonstrating a disability in social anticipation (Senju et al., 2010). Further, children’s ability to attribute false beliefs to social actors was tested. Those without the diagnosis were able to do so whereas those with the diagnosis were not, highlighting the strong correlation between anticipatory and social understanding (Senju et al., 2010).
Additionally, this study showcased two common deficiencies in autism: eye-gaze movements permitting anticipatory looking, and social comprehension demonstrated by anticipatory looking. Due to an impairment that manifests itself motorically, children with autism seem as though they lack certain social skills. It is possible, however, that these subjects may have been able to attribute false beliefs correctly had they been given a task they could have fulfilled. On the other hand, it may be that one ability permits the other in a prerequisite manner.
The deficiency in stimulus integration is manifested across various domains in autistic children. The previously mentioned sensitive magnocellular pathways, for example, found in high-risk infants may affect children’s eye blinking behaviors. One of the first ways in which infants can regulate the sensory stimulation and input they receive is by blinking their eyes. Closing the eyelids not only hydrates and protects the eyeballs but also actively prevents visual stimulation from entering the system. Researchers, sensitive to this regulatory behavior, measured the eye-blink rates of autistic children as compared to otherwise developmentally delayed children, and found interesting differences. Those children with autism displayed significantly elevated blink-rates during social interviews than did the otherwise delayed children. Not only do these results indicate overly sensitive magnocellular pathways, but they may also relate to the central dopaminergic system, which typically controls blinking behavior, and is hyperactive in autistic individuals (Goldberg, Maltz, Bow, & Karson, 1987).
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