FOCUSED AND SOCIAL ATTENTION OF AUTISTIC-CHILDREN IN INTERACTIONS WITH FAMILIAR AND UNFAMILIAR ADULTS - A COMPARISON OF AUTISTIC, MENTALLY-RETARDED, AND NORMAL-CHILDREN

This study involved observations of children's behaviors in interactiv e situations with both familiar and unfamiliar partners. The greatest differences between the autistic and nonautistic children were in an u nstructured situation where caregivers did not initiate interactions. In this situation, autistic children rarely looked to the partner or i nitiated social bids to the partner. They also were less focused on th e toys available for play compared to nonautistic children. However, t he autistic children were similar in their interactive responses to th e partner in an adult-initiated social situation. Individual differenc es confirmed that more able autistic children in terms of cognitive an d language abilities also engaged in greater social and communicative behavior with the partner. These findings suggest that the ways in whi ch social deficits are manifested by autistic children are variable wi th respect to the context in which they are measured.