自閉症類兒童模仿能力之探究：口語提示效果與不同模仿能力相關因素

本研究主要有兩個目的，第一、探究生理年齡4歲以下（平均生理年齡38個月，平均心理年齡28個月）的自閉症類兒童，指導語給予口語提示是否影響模仿能力的表現，自閉症類兒童根據指導語是否有口語提示分為兩組，另外有兩組控制組，發展遲緩兒童（平均生理年齡36個月，平均心理年齡28個月）和一般發展嬰幼兒（平均生理年齡23個月，平均心理年齡25個月）；第二、探究自閉症類兒童不同類型模仿能力的相關因素。模仿作業分為四種類型：有意義物體操作模仿、無意義物體操作模仿、有意義手勢動作模仿與無意義手勢動作模仿。研究結果顯示兩組自閉症類組在各類型模仿作業表現沒有因為指導語的不同出現顯著差異；自閉症類兒童在全部模仿作業與模仿總分的表現，皆較發展遲緩組兒童顯著為差；自閉症類兒童在有意義物體操作模仿與無意義物體操作模仿的表現，顯著比一般發展嬰幼兒差，但在其它類型模仿作業表現，自閉症類兒童與一般發展組則未達顯著差異；不同類型模仿能力相關因素，自閉症類組各類型模仿作業表現與整體心理年齡、語文年齡、非語文心理年齡、語言理解、語言表達及自閉症症狀出現相關。自閉症類兒童模仿能力，不因口語提示而影響模仿表現，顯示自閉症類兒童模仿缺陷，不是因為不理解指導語，而是與人互動、分享的動機與意圖低，影響模仿表現。模仿能力和認知、語言能力與自閉症症狀相關的結果，支持模仿能力在社會與認知能力發展的重要性，提供早療介入訓練方向的思考。

關鍵字

自閉症類疾患；模仿能力；口語提示；相關因素；自閉症症狀

並列摘要

There are two purposes of the present study. First, we wanted to explore the performance of imitation in children with autism spectrum disorders（mean chronological age [CA] = 38 months, mean mental age [MA] = 28 months）. The children with autism spectrum disorders were divided into two groups according to the examiner’s instruction with verbal cue or not. In addition, there are another two control groups, including CA- and MA-matched children with developmental delay, and MA-matched typically-developing toddlers. Second, we plan to explore the abilities related to different imitation tasks. There are four tasks used for evaluating imitation abilities, including meaningful action on objects, nonmeaningful action on objects, meaningful manual movement and nonmeaningful manual movement. The results revealed that there are no significantly differences between two groups of children with autism spectrum disorder on all imitation tasks. However, the children with autism spectrum disorders showed significantly impaired compared to the children with developmental delay on all imitation tasks. And, children with autism spectrum disorders performed significantly impaired compared to toddlers with typically-developing on both meaningful action on objects and nonmeaningful action on objects. The current study also revealed that children with autism spectrum disorders, imitation abilities were significantly related to different developmental and social abilities, including mental age, verbal mental age, nonverbal mental age, receptive language, expressive language, and severity of autism symptoms. The performance of imitation in children with autism spectrum disorders didn’t be influenced by the examiner’s instruction with verbal cue, it means that imitative deficits in children with autism spectrum disorders was because of their low motivation and no interest in sharing with others instead of not being understood examiner’s instruction. The relations between the imitative abilities and developmental abilities, language and autism symptoms supported that imitative abilities play an important role in development of social and cognitive skills, and provide a direction of early intervention program for children with autism spectrum disorders.