Evidence of Embodied Social Competence During Conversation in High Functioning Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Even high functioning children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) exhibit impairments that affect their ability to carry out and maintain effective social interactions in multiple contexts. One aspect of subtle nonverbal communication that might play a role in this impairment is the whole-body motor coordination that naturally arises between people during conversation. The current study aimed to measure the time-dependent, coordinated whole-body movements between children with ASD and a clinician during a conversational exchange using tools of nonlinear dynamics. Given the influence that subtle interpersonal coordination has on social interaction feelings, we expected there to be important associations between the dynamic motor movement measures introduced in the current study and the measures used traditionally to categorize ASD impairment (ADOS-2, joint attention and theory of mind). The study found that children with ASD coordinated their bodily movements with a clinician, that these movements were complex and that the complexity of the children’s movements matched that of the clinician’s movements. Importantly, the degree of this bodily coordination was related to higher social cognitive ability. This suggests children with ASD are embodying some degree of social competence during conversations. This study demonstrates the importance of further investigating the subtle but important bodily movement coordination that occurs during social interaction in children with ASD

Correction: Evidence of embodied social competence during conversation in high functioning children with autism spectrum disorder.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0193906.]

Evidence of embodied social competence during conversation in high functioning children with autism spectrum disorder.

Even high functioning children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) exhibit impairments that affect their ability to carry out and maintain effective social interactions in multiple contexts. One aspect of subtle nonverbal communication that might play a role in this impairment is the whole-body motor coordination that naturally arises between people during conversation. The current study aimed to measure the time-dependent, coordinated whole-body movements between children with ASD and a clinician during a conversational exchange using tools of nonlinear dynamics. Given the influence that subtle interpersonal coordination has on social interaction feelings, we expected there to be important associations between the dynamic motor movement measures introduced in the current study and the measures used traditionally to categorize ASD impairment (ADOS-2, joint attention and theory of mind). The study found that children with ASD coordinated their bodily movements with a clinician, that these movements were complex and that the complexity of the children's movements matched that of the clinician's movements. Importantly, the degree of this bodily coordination was related to higher social cognitive ability. This suggests children with ASD are embodying some degree of social competence during conversations. This study demonstrates the importance of further investigating the subtle but important bodily movement coordination that occurs during social interaction in children with ASD

Example cross-wavelet plots.

<p>Wavelet power of child (top), clinician (middle) and cross-wavelet coherence (bottom) plots for an exemplary interaction. The length of the interaction was 283 s. In the top two plots, the color indicates the degree of spectral energy at different points in time of the interaction (x-axis) and at different time scales (y-axis periods). In the bottom plot, coherence magnitude and relative phase at a given time scale and a point in time are denoted by color and the orientation of the arrow (pointing right: child-clinician inphase whole-body movement coordination; left: child-clinician antiphase whole-body movement coordination; down: child leading by 90°), respectively.</p

Bivariate correlations.

<p>Bivariate correlations.</p

Results of the principal components analysis.

<p>Results of the principal components analysis.</p

The relative phasing of whole-body movement rhythms of the child and clinician at the different time scales.

<p>The relative phasing of whole-body movement rhythms of the child and clinician at the different time scales.</p