COMPLIANCE WITH PARENTAL PROHIBITION IN AUTISTIC-CHILDREN

In a controlled observational study of young autistic children ages 3 to 5, responses to parental prohibition were compared to those of ment al-age-matched mentally retarded and normal children. The children wer e prohibited from eating a candy offered to them by the experimenter. Behavioral response, affect, and gaze patterns were compared across th e three groups. Autistic children exhibited significantly less complia nt behavior than did children in the two control groups; this behavior correlated with chronological age, not with mental age, language deve lopment, or parental behavior. Although affect and gaze patterns of th e autistic children were different from the controls, these patterns w ere not correlated with compliant behavior. In conclusion, when compar ed to mental-age-matched control groups, autistic children are signifi cantly less compliant to parental prohibition and they show different gaze and affect patterns.