An exploration of person perception abilities in children with a Pervasive Developmental Disorder not Otherwise Specified

Abstract

This explorative study investigates differences in person perception abilities between a group of children diagnosed as having a Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDDNOS) and a group of normal children of the same age and sex. Person perception, a social-cognitive skill, concerns the way in which children conceptualise other people, their intentions, attitudes, traits and emotions (central), as well as their overt behaviour and their physical characteristics (peripheral). Person perception was investigated by means of a free-person description, in which the child was asked to describe another person. Children with a PDDNOS used more peripheral and less central statements than the control group to describe another person. However, these differences seemed to reflect differences in intelligence between the two groups, rather than differences in a specific social-cognitive skill. The results need to be replicated, but seem to be in line with other studies that suggest that there may be subgroups of the autistic spectrum that show severe social impairment but have good social-cognitive abilities.