Abstract: | Studied negativism in 9 autistic, 9 behavior-disturbed, and 9 normal 5-12 yr olds in 3 different stimulus conditions (verbal requests for verbal responses, verbal requests for nonverbal responses, and nonverbal requests for nonverbal responses). Each condition included 2 tasks, which were requested 15 consecutive times. Ss demonstrated that they could perform the tasks before testing, and their responses were scored according to the similarity between the response and the request. Results demonstrate that the autistic and behavior-disturbed Ss responded similarly, except when requests required verbal responses, in which case the autistic Ss were much more negative. Results suggest applications to diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |