NONVERBAL AFFECTIVE DECODING ABILITY IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM AND IN TYPICAL PRESCHOOLERS

Twelve male children with autism and twelve male typical children view ed a series of videotaped vignettes in which two interacting children displayed differing facial expressions of happiness, sadness, or anger . To test their skills in decoding nonverbal facial expressions, parti cipants were asked which of the two children was displaying a particul ar expression. Results showed that the typical children were more accu rate in their decoding of expressions than were the children with auti sm for each of the three emotions studied However the children with au tism did show certain decoding ability: they were able to identify hap piness vignettes at above-chance levels. The results have implications for assessing and ultimately remediating nonverbal[ skill deficits in children with autism