Judgments of social appropriateness by children and adolescents with autism

Children and adolescents with autism (autism group, n = 19) and those witho ut autism (Nonautism group, n = 19) of similar age and IQ were asked to mak e judgments of the social appropriateness of 24 videotaped, staged scenes w ith adult actors. Each scene depicted an appropriate or an inappropriate in teraction. Half contained verbalizations, and half did not. After each scen e, the participant was asked: (1) Was that o.k. or was something wrong with it? If the participant judged the scene was wrong, she or he was asked: (2 ) What was wrong with it?; and (3) Why was that wrong? Both groups correctl y identified inappropriate behaviors most of the time, and correct behavior s almost all of the time. However, the Nonautism group detected inappropria te behaviors significantly more often than the Autism group, for verbal but not nonverbal scenes. It was also significantly easier for both groups to identify inappropriate behaviors in the nonverbal than in the verbal scenes . Ratings of the explanations given for Question 3 differed significantly b etween the groups for verbal but not for nonverbal scenes, with Nonautism p articipants more likely to give explanations involving social norms and pri nciples, and the Autism group more likely to give explanations that were ir relevant or idiosyncratic.