Cognitive disorders of infantile autism: a study employing the WISC, spatial relationship conceptualization, and gesture imitations.

Sixteen autistic children with WISC Performance IQs of 70 or above were analyzed to determine their conceptions of spatial relations, size comparisons, and gesture imitations through the use of the WISC, an originally devised Language Decoding Test (LDT), and a modified Gesture Imitation Test (GIT). WISC results were replicated as in previous studies. The autistic children showed an inability to acquire concepts of size comparison and spatial relationships through verbal instructions. They often gave peculiar responses (partial imitations), which seem to be related to their inability to integrate another person's body as a whole through visual input. These findings support the notion that the basic cognitive deficit is an impairment of symbolic-representational functioning, including language and body images, which results from a combination of delay and deviation of the symbolic-representational function.