Hand leading and hand taking gestures in autism and typically developing children
Abstract
Children with autism use hand taking and hand leading gestures to interact with others. This is traditionally considered to be an example of atypical behaviour illustrating the lack of intersubjective understanding in autism. However the assumption that these gestures are atypical is based upon scarce empirical evidence. In this paper I present detailed observations in children with autism and typically developing children, suggesting that hand-leading gestures may be an adaptive form of interaction in typically developing children neglected by mainstream developmental psychology. I conclude that, although there may be features differentiating how these gestures are used in autism and typical children, systematic research on them is needed to clarify their nature and significance for both typical and atypical development.
Citation
Gomez , J-C 2015 , ' Hand leading and hand taking gestures in autism and typically developing children ' , Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders , vol. 45 , no. 1 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2305-5
Publication
Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0162-3257Type
Journal article
Rights
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-014-2305-5.
Description
This paper was partly funded by a Grant from the Baverstock Bequest to the School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews.Collections
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