Journal Article

Moving Together: Social Motor Synchrony in Autistic Peer Partners Depends on Partner and Activity Type

Yuill, Nicola, Glass, Devyn

2024

Overview

Some suggest autistic people display impaired Interpersonal Synchrony. However, partners of different neurotypes can struggle to connect and empathise with one another. We used Motion Energy Analysis to examine Social Motor Synchrony (SMS) in familiar partners of the same neurotype: pairs of autistic and of neurotypical children. Partners played two shared tablet activities, one to support collaboration by facilitating engagement and other-awareness (Connect), and one with no additional design features to facilitate collaboration (Colours). The neurotypical group showed similar SMS to the autistic group in Colours but lower SMS in Connect. The autistic group displayed similar levels of SMS in each activity. Autistic children can synchronise to a similar, or greater, degree than neurotypical children when the social context and type of task are considered.

• Publisher: Springer US,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Adolescent / Attention / Autism / Autistic children / Autistic Disorder - physiopathology / Autistic Disorder - psychology / Behavioral Science and Psychology / Child / Child and School Psychology / Children / Cognition & reasoning / Cognitive Processes / Collaboration / Communication / Communication (Thought Transfer) / Cooperative Behavior / Demographic aspects / Evaluation / Expectation / Female / Humans / Influence of Technology / Interpersonal Relations / Interpersonal Relationship / Learner Engagement / Male / Motion detection / Neurosciences / Original Paper / Pediatrics / Peer Group / Psychology / Public Health / Short Term Memory / Social Behavior / Social environment / Social Interaction / Social skills / Synchrony