Transcript

MALE TEACHER:

What could this shape be? What does it look like?

CHILD:

Glass

NARRATOR:

In this experiment a boy with autistic spectrum disorder is asked to see the possibilities of a piece of foam.

MALE TEACHER:

What about this way? What could it be if it was this way?

CHILD:

A foot

MALE TEACHER:

A foot. Very well done. Thats right.

NARRATOR:

The same task is given to a typically developing child

MALE TEACHER:

Can you tell me lots of things this could be?

TYPICAL CHILD

A snake.

MALE TEACHER:

A snake. What else could it be?

TYPICAL CHILD:

A hat. A measuring board. A circle. Thats the shoe and thats the leg. That part can be a stem and that part can be a leaf.

ILONA ROTH:

Just producing fewer responses in some of these tasks is not necessarily a sign of impoverished imagination. It might be a deficit in what is called executive function, the ability to respond flexibly to situations. But in these tasks the responses were scored for both their quality and their quantity and the autistic children had difficulties with both of those.

MALE TEACHER:

It seems to be when you talk to people about imagination they expect something that steps out of ordinary just coming up with lots of answers. In terms of the imagery involved there seems to be a distinction between real world imagery and impossible or unreal imagery.