ASSESSING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AFFECTIVE RESPONSIVITY AND SOCIAL-INTERACTION IN CHILDREN WITH PERVASIVE DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER

An investigation of children with pervasive developmental disorder (PD D) was conducted using a new instrument, the Kiddie-Infant Descriptive Instrument for Emotional States (KIDIES). The KIDIES rates several af fective and behavioral dimensions based on facial, vocal, gestural, an d postural cues. The study's goals were to determine whether the KIDIE S could detect individual differences in responsivity among the PDD su bjects; to ascertain the KIDIES' sensitivity in identifying group diff erences between PDD subjects and control children with other developme ntal disorders. Children were videotaped during episodes with three pa rtners: the mother, a familiar female teacher, an unfamiliar male doct or. Episodes were scored using the KIDIES. PDD subjects were most seve rely impaired during the Mother episode in comparison to the controls. Equally as striking was the within-episode heterogeneity among PDD su bjects. During the Teacher episode, PDD subjects were twice as variabl e in interpersonal response as the controls.