Autistic adults display enhanced and locally oriented low-level perception of static visual information, but diminished perception of some types of movement. The identification of potential precursors, such as atypical perceptual processing, among very young children would be an initial step toward understanding the development of these phenomena. The purpose of this study was to provide an initial measure and interpretation of atypical visual exploratory behaviors toward inanimate objects (AVEBIOs) among young children with autism. A coding system for AVEBIOs was constructed from a corpus of 40 semistandardized assessments of autistic children. The most frequent atypical visual behavior among 15 children aged 33-73 months was lateral glance that was mostly oriented toward moving stimuli and was detected reliably by the experimenters (intraclass correlation > .90). This behavior was more common among autistic than typically developing children of similar verbal mental age and chronological age. As lateral vision is associated with the filtering of high spatial frequency (detail perception) information and the facilitation of high temporal frequencies (movement perception), its high prevalence among very young autistic children may reflect early attempts to regulate and/or optimize both excessive amounts of local information and diminished perception of movement. These findings are initial evidence for the need to consider the neural bases and development of atypical behaviors and their implications for intervention strategies.

Behaviors characterized as restricted and repetitive (RRBs) in autism manifest in diverse ways, from motor mannerisms to intense interests, and are diagnostically defined as interfering with functioning. A variety of early autism interventions target RRBs as preoccupying young autistic children to the detriment of exploration and learning opportunities. In an exploratory study, we developed a novel stimulating play situation including objects of potential interest to autistic children, then investigated repetitive behaviors and object explorations in 49 autistic and 43 age-matched typical young children (20–69 months). Autistic children displayed significantly increased overall frequency and duration of repetitive behaviors, as well as increased specific repetitive behaviors. However, groups did not significantly differ in frequency and duration of overall object explorations, in number of different objects explored, or in explorations of specific objects. Exploratory analyses found similar or greater exploration of literacy-related objects in autistic compared to typical children. Correlations between repetitive behaviors and object explorations (their frequency and duration) revealed positive, not negative, associations in both groups. Our findings, from a novel situation incorporating potential autistic interests, suggest that RRBs do not necessarily displace exploration and its possibilities for learning in autism.

Starting early in life, autistics are characterized as having atypical facial expressions, as well as decreased positive and increased negative affect. The literature on autistic facial expressions remains small, however, with disparate methods and results suggesting limited understanding of common autistic emotions. Furthermore, unlike non-autistics’ emotions, autistics’ emotions have been assessed without considering this population’s characteristics. In this study, the valence of young children’s facial expressions was thus rated as positive, negative, neutral, or “unknown”—a term for perceived emotions observers do not understand. Facial expressions were assessed using the Montreal Stimulating Play Situation, a context incorporating potential autistic interests. Comparing 37 autistic and 39 typical young (27–56 months) age-matched children, we found no group differences in expressed positive, negative, and neutral emotions. We did find differences in unknown emotions, which were unique to the autistic group. Preliminary data also showed that autistic children’s repetitive behaviors co-occurred with positive, neutral, and unknown emotions, but not with negative emotions. In a novel context that considers their characteristics, we did not find decreased positive or increased negative emotions in young autistic children. Instead, they uniquely expressed emotions perceived as unknown, showing the need to improve our understanding of their full emotional repertoire. Lay abstract Autistic people are believed to have emotions that are too negative and not positive enough, starting early in life. Their facial expressions are also persistently judged to be unusual, as reflected in criteria used to identify autism. But it is possible that common autistic facial expressions are poorly understood by observers, as suggested by a range of findings from research. Another issue is that autistic emotions have always been assessed in contexts suited to non-autistics. In our study, the facial expressions of young autistic and typical children were rated as positive, negative, neutral, or “unknown”—a category we created for emotions that observers notice but do not understand. These emotions were assessed using a context suited to autistic children, including objects of potential interest to them. We found that in this context, autistic and typical children did not differ in positive, negative, or neutral facial emotions. They did differ in unknown emotions, which were found only in autistic children. We also found that repetitive behaviors in autistic children co-occurred with positive, neutral, and unknown emotions, but not with negative emotions. In a context which suits their characteristics, autistic children do not show emotions that are too negative or not positive enough. They do show emotions perceived as unknown, which means we need to improve our understanding of their full emotional repertoire.

Bien que l'éducation spécialisée sous ses divers modes soit consensuellement reconnue comme l'abord privilégié des troubles envahissants du développement, il n'existe à ce jour que peu de travaux sur l'intervention rééducative chez les personnes autistes d'intelligence normale. Cet article présente l'intervention psychoéducative faite avec un jeune garçon autiste de trois ans dans un centre de jour pédopsychiatrique. L'intérêt de cette observation est double. Tout d'abord, cet enfant était porteur, en plus de son autisme, d'une affection de caractère exceptionnel, l'agnosie visuelle. D'autre part, ses « intérêts restreints » autistiques, c'est-à-dire les comportements d'attirance perceptive et de questionnement pour une classe d'objets particuliers ou un paramètre particulier de ces objets, ont été utilisés comme levier pour l'amener à améliorer ses capacités de communication et d'interactions sociales.Although special education under its diverse forms is consensually recognized as the priviliged area of pervasive developmental delay, there is little studies on re-education intervention for autistic persons of normal intelligence. This article presents a psychoeducative intervention with a three year old autistic boy in a pédopsychiatrie day care centre. The interest of this observation is double. On the one hand, this child, aside from autism, is carrier of an exceptional ailment: visual agnosia. On the other hand, his "restrictive autistic interest", namely perceptive attraction and his questioning of a particular class of objects or a particular parameter of these objects were used as lever to bring him to improve his capacities of communication and social interactions.Aunque la education especializada en sus diversas formas sea, de manera consensual, reconocida como el abordaje privilegiado de los desordenes invasores del desarrollo, hasta el momento solo existen pocos trabajos sobre la intervencion con las personas autistas de inteligencia normal. Este articulo présenta la intervencion sicoeducativa realizada con un nino autista de très afios en un centro de siquiatria infantil. El interés de esta observaciôn es doble. Primeramente, este nino era ademâs de su autismo portador de una afeccion de carâcter exepcional, la agnosia visual. En segundo lugar, los "intereses restringidos" autisitcos de este nino, es decir los comportamientos de atracciôn perceptiva y de interrogaciôn por una clase particular de objetos o un parâmetro particular de esos objetos, fueron utilizados como palanca para Ilevarlo a mejorar sus capacidades de comunicaciôn y de interacciones sociales