Communicative Interaction Between Mothers and Their Autistic Children: Application of a New Instrument and Changes After Treatment

Five children with autism and one with dysphasia were studied using a pragmatic measure of dyadic interpretation formerly used only in normal populations. It was shown that such a measure could be used to describe the interactive behavior of deviant children in a reliable and valid way. Mothers of these children are, by and large, less able to set up successful dialogues because they frequently redirect them. After a nursery program of 5 to 8 months, mothers became less asynchronous and approximated a teacher's success in synchronous dialogue. Autistic children's development can be enhanced by better interaction with their adult environment. This study demonstrates how this new application of a method can measure such changes.