routines or arrangements, o activities, although they still lack the necessary skills for success. people (avoids eye contact, runs away, hides), o delayed motor development, especially for balance and fine motor tasks, Unusual However, contrary to what you might expect given the common wisdom about autistic people avoiding eye contact/looking at faces, though, they did not differ much from the typically-developing ones in how long they spent looking at their own faces. Intellectually o Exaggerated That is not me, and asking Who are you. to understand or engage in interactive communication or play (sharing objects (taste/texture/temperature) input. You'd think someone would be more likely to try to establish a rapport with something they believed to be another person, rather than with what they knew was only an image of themselves. Mirrors will trigger major distraction for my son as I've noted in several of his classes (karate, yoga etc..) One of my guesses is that mirrors actually create DOUBLE "visual clutter" in a room. The children with Down syndrome tended to do *more* social relating with the reflection if they passed the MSR test, which seems counterintuitive to me. Hi , I have ASD & have been trying to find info about my inability to use mirrors in relation to a driving license. category, with children demonstrating higher levels of language and can alter the meaning of speech (sarcasm, irony, humor, emotion, etc.,). Unusual reaction to the distress of other My son only in the last few months has started looking at the person in the mirror. Hi, Anon!I don't think what you're describing sounds daft at all. Mirror behaviour may be a subtle but easily elicited measure of the social quality of a sense of self. to understand or utilize emotional expression in verbal or non-verbal The children with Down syndrome tended to do *more* social relating with the reflection if they passed the MSR test, which seems counterintuitive to me. language and other non-verbal communication. Their study was published in a special issue of Autism pertaining to how a sense of "selfhood" develops in autism, and indeed they do manage to tie these findings to an alleged autistic impairment** in developing this sense: This passage, along with a passage I will also excerpt from the Introduction ---. or inappropriate response to distress in other children. especially inclined (upward/downward) or inverted (upside-down), o preference or aversion for smells / tastes / textures, o What would the researchers have done if during the study a kid took off the sticker and started viewing his reflection and then said "Quit copying me!"?
o o My own is definitely related to visual/spatial, proprioception type stuff - triggers balance problems etc. distress to changes in preferred orders, routines, patterns or arrangements, Significant Expression Inappropriate emotional response due to In developmental psychology the mirror has become synonymous with the identification of the self . ending conversations. attachment to inanimate, often non-toy objects. of internal thoughts through invisible friends, Echoing Over reactive to changes in said orders, I am not how I look. communication. language development followed by a sudden loss or lack of progress in the previously Acta Neurobiol Exp (Wars). communication of wants or needs, o children, o 2010;70(2):131-40. 2015 Aug;167(2):460-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2015.05.029. People who only care about how they look and spend hours in front of the mirror tend to be some of the most plastic, fake people. 2008 Apr;1(2):73-90. doi: 10.1002/aur.15. However, contrary to what you might expect given the common wisdom about, The autistic children also differed from the other two groups in what kinds of things they, Children with Down syndrome also spent more time watching their reflections if they failed the MSR test; the typically developing children spent about the same amount of time watching themselves whether or not they seemed to know they were watching themselves. obsession with mirror reflection of facial expressions or postures. 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Who's That in the Mirror? I can see another problem with the sticker: some kids might think it's fun to have stickers on their faces, and thus might not be inclinced to remove them. Obsessive Instead, the common wisdom seems to be that we are, *An explanation of this test, and what it supposedly says about sense of self, can be found, **I think it's funny, if only from an etymological standpoint, that AUTistic people are now thought to have an, Reddy, V., Williams, E., Costantini, C., & Lan, B. it sounds daft but it really is that simple, eg in a car mirror, the actual image of a car coming up behind you travelling in the same directionas you, moves from the bottom to the top of the mirror,but a car going away from you also moves from the bottom to the top of the mirror , so how do you know which is which?except that one is the back of a car 7 one is the front, but most cars look much the same to me back or front , then the trees etc go from right to left as you leave them behind & run from bottom to top really fast on the one where the cars are going past you , so work that one out because I can't, no wonder we are fascinated by & stare into mirrors lol they're like a slightly different version of everything that's familiar. certain objects and activities. I was just interested in figuring out how the mirror worked. Accessibility all activities of daily living. And for the earlier Anonymous, whom I never acknowledged before --- yes, I think draping the mirrors would be a good thing. Unusual walking preferences (toe-walking, Unable Beyond modularisation: the need of a socio-neuro-constructionist model of autism. Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). All of o Hyper-sensitivity to imposed tactile The site is secure. Arch Gen Psychiatry. I see it as more of a prop or a tool. [Autism: toward a necessary cultural revolution]. stare at others. Unusual aware of social rules for appropriate interaction but unable to implement those (2010). A New Interactive Screening Test for Autism Spectrum Disorders in Toddlers. Insists on only speaking about favorite But the mirror --- there is where you can find the one human face that won't mind being stared at. Difficulty o Unusual of social interaction only to accomplish a task or as a means to an end. Autism as a developmental disorder in intentional movement and affective engagement. initiating, maintaining, and ending conversations. Front Integr Neurosci. don't disturb other children. Engaging with the self: Mirror behaviour in autism, Down syndrome and typical development, (Awarded Simultaneously by Clay Adams and Corina Becker), autistic people avoiding eye contact/looking at faces, Who's That in the Mirror? avoiding eye contact or interaction with both familiar and unfamiliar people, Obsessive FOIA Unable to function without specific order But mirrors can also symbolise and allow a relation with the Other. walking preferences involving specific areas of the foot (balancing or perching If they removed it, they were said to have passed the. The study authors hypothesize that "[a] watchful focus on the self could be due to imminent self-recognition (suggested by the finding of a short-term alignment between watching and self-recognition in typical development, Nielsen et al., 2003). I am not my image. view. 2015 Jan;45(1):31-41. doi: 10.1007/s10803-013-1966-9. I just wondered if anyone had thought that instead of staring at themselves in the mirror , these children, like me were trying to work out what was going on in the mirror.The things in it are things I recognise but they aren't the right way round & don't move in the same way. to understand or respect personal space, o More age specific symptoms of Pervasive Developmental Disorders can be found at www.autism-help.org: o The study authors hypothesize that "[a] watchful focus on the self could be due to imminent self-recognition (suggested by the finding of a short-term alignment between watching and self-recognition in typical development, Nielsen et al., 2003). Early signs of Pervasive Developmental o Limited or lack of interest in other Unusual attachment or obsession with o Sometimes I have so much to say about a given topic that I'll do a series of posts on it. intensity in response to internal stress or external/environmental activity advanced for age. I Seem to be Getting More Autistic! of knowledge on limited, usually non-childhood interests, o The fourth edition of the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic Prefers solitary, passive activity. Locomotor activity, object exploration and space preference in children with autism and Down syndrome. Preoccupation with amassing a great deal of routine and/or arrangement of objects, o anxiety with uncontrolled physical movement or placement of their head, maybe the kids with Down Syndrome haven't seen a lot of faces that look like theirs, and they were excited. Unable to correctly interpret or use I have a feeling that even many neurotypicals even if they had the typical response as children would say similarly about themselves that they don't consider their personal identities to be all about how they look.
acquired skill, o especially inclined (upward/downward) or inverted (upside-down), Significantly (Oh, well --- like I said before, I'm no developmental psychologist! Inability "The typically developing children also did not show any relationship between MSR and social-relating behavior toward the mirror: whether they recognized themselves or not, they were just as likely to act as if their reflection were a social partner or an audience, as opposed to just a reflection (which is how the autistic children tended to treat their reflections, if indeed they recognized them as such). Tendency to either avoid eye contact or openly aware of social rules for appropriate interaction but unable to implement those ), KARG ACADEMY LIFELINES -- WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TO FIGHT FOR WHAT YOUR CHILD NEEDS, Neurological vs. Neuropsychological Evaluations, Non-Verbal Learning Disability (NLD or NVLD), KARG ACADEMY SURVIVAL TIPS AND STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE SPECIAL PARENTING, Positive Responses to Decidedly Negative Comments, Putting the PARENT Back in Parent Teacher Conferences, Respecting the PERSON with the Disability. is a good question to ask. The .gov means its official. stiff or awkward movement patterns with rigid protection stances, o But I was also always being told not to stare at people's faces, because it was rude. So very interesting to read about this. Unusually You could call that a sign of an impaired sense of social relatedness with the self, as the researchers did, or you could call it a sign of a robust, healthy curiosity about the physical environment! 2008 Aug;65(8):946-54. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.65.8.946. o What they did instead varied with whether or not they understood that they were looking at themselves: autistic children who passed the MSR test spent most of their time experimenting with the mirror, tilting it to see things around the room, doing things with toys or with their faces while watching to see those actions reflected back to them, while autistic children who failed to recognize their own reflections spent more time simply watching the person in the mirror. Unusual I think they are talking about a much simpler concept of selfhood --- do you know that that's you in the mirror, and not another kid? of internal thoughts through invisible friends, o Both my young son (AS) and I (AS) have challenges with mirrors. - Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World without Rape, Mary Wollstonecraft - A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Natalie Angier - Woman: An Intimate Geography, Nawal El Saadawi - The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World, Shulamith Firestone - The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution, Susan Bordo - Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body, Susan Brownmiller - Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, Susan Faludi - Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women, Andrew Goliszek - In The Name of Science: A History of Secret Programs, Medical Research and Human Experimentation, Ann Fessler - The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade, Barbara Ehrenreich - Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class, Barbara Ehrenreich - Nickel and Dimed: On Not Getting By in America, Dan Agin - Junk Science: How Politicians, Corporations, and Other Hucksters Betray Us, David Hadju - The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, Derrick Jensen - The Culture of Make Believe, Edwin Black - War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race, Jared Diamond - Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared Diamond - Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, Jerry Mander - Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, Jerry Mander - In The Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations, Kevin Phillips - American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century, Michael Kimmel - Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men, Michael Pollan - The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Philip Slater - The Pursuit of Loneliness: American Culture at the Breaking Point, Robert Whitaker - Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America, Stephen Jay Gould - The Mismeasure of Man, Susan Faludi - The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America, William H. Whyte Jr. - The Organization Man, Sheri S. Tepper - Gibbon's Decline and Fall, Sheri S. Tepper - The Gate to Women's Country, Ursula K. Le Guin - The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin - The Word for World Is Forest, Amanda Baggs - "Help!