Treating People as Objects, Agents, or “Subjects”: How Young Children With and Without Autism Make Requests

Wendy Phillips*, Juan Carlos Gómez, Simon Baron‐Cohen, Vicky Laá, Angel Rivière

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Abstract A procedure previously used to investigate imperative communication in non‐human primates was applied to young children, some of whom had autism. The goal was to examine closely how requests are made in a problem‐solving situation. Each child's spontaneous strategies to obtain an out‐of‐reach object were analyzed in terms of the ways in which he or she used the adult who was present. Results showed that fewer children with autism used a strategy of treating the person as a “subject”, and that more children with autism used object‐centred strategies.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1383-1398
Number of pages16
JournalJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
Volume36
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 1995

Keywords

  • Autism
  • eye‐contact
  • joint attention
  • requesting

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