Preschool-age children with autism who have severe repetitive behaviors and intensely restricted interests tend to lag intellectually and struggle with daily living skills later on1.
The findings support the notion that repetitive behaviors pave the way for other autism-related symptoms, perhaps by shifting a child’s focus away from important learning experiences.
“These children can’t disengage their attention from these internal monologues or visual images and get their attention focused on the outside world,” says lead researcher Deborah Fein, professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.
The researchers found that preschool-age children who showed intense fascination with parts of objects, such as the wheels on a toy car, and had restricted sensory interests, such as sniffing objects, had lower scores on cognitive tests at ages 8 to 10 than did those with mild repetitive behaviors or restricted interests. This trend affects both verbal and nonverbal reasoning, the researchers reported 16 December in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
The researchers found that preschool-age children who showed intense fascination with parts of objects, such as the wheels on a toy car, and had restricted sensory interests, such as sniffing objects, had lower scores on cognitive tests at ages 8 to 10 than did those with mild repetitive behaviors or restricted interests. This trend affects both verbal and nonverbal reasoning, the researchers reported 16 December in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
