Abstract
Investigated examples of naturalistic humor in a group of 6 young children with autism and 6 age- and language-matched children with Down syndrome, who were videotaped while interacting with their mothers in bimonthly 1-hour sessions over the course of 1 year. Humor episodes were analyzed on three dimensions: cognitive developmental, social, and intentionality. The autistic children produced significantly less humor overall and less humor involving nonverbal incongruity. The only jokes in the study were told by 2 of the children with Down syndrome. Results indicate that while children with autism can produce and appreciate humor to a limited extent in a naturalistic setting, they do so at a significantly reduced level compared to matched controls. Findings are discussed in relation to the social-cognitive deficits in autistic children, which are among the primary characteristics of the syndrome.
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This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (1RO1 HD 18833) and the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (1RO1 DC 01234) to the second author. Portions of these data were presented at the 1993 Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. This paper is based on a thesis submitted by the first author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a masters degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of Massachusetts. We thank Carol Smith for her help in the design and interpretation of the study and Lawrence Pick for his help in coding. We are also especially grateful to the children and families who participated in the study.
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James, P.J.S., Tager-Flusberg, H. An observational study of humor in autism and down syndrome. J Autism Dev Disord 24, 603–617 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02172141
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02172141