The autistic child's recognition of age‐related features of people, animals and things

Clinical observation indicates that at least some autistic children are uncertain about the age group to which other people belong. A card‐sorting technique was employed to compare the consistency with which autistic subjects sorted pictures of people and of dogs into those that were young and those that were adult, and the consistency with which they sorted non‐representational geometrical figures, and drawings of objects that were new or worn‐out. The children were 16 autistic and 16 non‐autistic retarded individuals matched for chronological age and for non‐verbal intelligence. Autistic children were less consistent than control children in sorting pictures of people and animals according to age, but they were not less consistent in sorting geometrical figures nor in sorting drawings of things by age‐related features. Autistic children's relative failure to distinguish between children and adults may reflect an important aspect of their impaired social development.