What promotes the development of social cognition in young children with ASD: Relation between the developmental environment and the developmental features

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26590147
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Educational psychology
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Sanefuji Wakako 九州大学, 人間環境学研究院, 准教授 (60551752)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 自閉症 / 乳幼児 / 早期介入

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We investigated what promotes the development of social cognition in young children with ASD in terms of the relation between the developmental features (individual differences in development) and the developmental environment. The results showed that early intervention promotes at least the development of imitation in children with ASD. It should be noted, however, that participation in peer group (not intervention) may promote the development of imitation if children participated in it at earlier period of their development. We need to further examine which aspects of development is promoted by earlier social experience.

Free Research Field

発達心理学