How is crying perceived in children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a disorder that affects language and social skills to varying degrees. While many studies have concentrated on examining patterns of behavior and development on the context of speaking and interacting, very few researchers have investigated the parameters of crying in infants with ASD. This finding is surprising since crying can be viewed as both the first communicative and social structure in human development. The aim of our study was to investigate how the crying of children with ASD, as opposed to children with intellectual disability (ID) was perceived. In particular, we tested a questionnaire to verify whether the atypical structure of autistic crying can bias parent perceptions. The atypical structure of autistic crying was highlighted. In autistic children, crying was inexplicable for their parents who could not identify causative factors. These results support the view of autism as related to a problem of expressing and sharing emotions. Parents' reactions to autistic crying were qualitatively different from non-autistic children of the same age. This difference was compounded parental attempt to share feelings and developing inter-subjectivity processes with their children. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.