IMAGINING THE OUTCOME OF PRETEND TRANSFORMATIONS - ASSESSING THE COMPETENCE OF NORMAL-CHILDREN AND CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

Children's grasp of make-believe transformations was studied. In Experiment 1, children saw an adult enact a pretend change (e.g., sprinkling pretend talcum powder over a toy cat). They indicated the pretend outcome by choosing between a picture depicting no change (e.g., cat without talcum powder on its body) and a picture depicting the pretend change (e.g., cat covered with talcum powder). Older children (M = 29 months) chose correctly, but younger children (M = 21 months) did not. A similar age change emerged in Experiment 2 despite the addition of a picture of an irrelevant transformation. Experiment 3 showed that children with austin can imagine pretend transformations. Implications for children's imagination and the austistic syndrome are discussed.