Autistic Children Struggle With Smiles

Main Category: Autism
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 21 Aug 2009 - 3:00 PST

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Autistic children struggle to understand the meaning behind a smile. This is the finding of a study published in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology online, today, 21st August 2009.

Eight boys diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder ranging in age from 5 to 15, took part in the study carried out by Professor Lucy Johnston from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. The eight autistic boys were compared with eleven boys of the same age without autism on an emotion recognition task.

The children were each shown photographs of people with neutral expressions, non-enjoyment (or faked) smiles, and enjoyment (or real) smiles, and were asked whether the person in the photograph was 'feeling happy on the inside' - yes, or no. They were also asked whether the person was 'looking happy'.

The eight children with autistic spectrum disorder failed to score better than chance on this task. They were no more likely to match 'feeling happy on the inside' with the enjoyment smile than with the faked smile.

Professor Johnston said: "The difference between the boys with and without the disorder was pronounced, especially when we note that the boys without the disorder were as sensitive to the difference between smile types as were adults in our previous research. Being sensitive to the differences between enjoyment and faked smiles is essential for effective social interaction.

"We need to do more research to better understand how the lack of sensitivity to smile type seen in the children with autistic spectrum disorders in this study fits into the wider social difficulties that this group experiences."

Source
British Psychological Society