Biomaterial Database

Attachment behaviors in autistic children. 1984

M Sigman, and J A Ungerer

The social behaviors of 14 autistic children and 14 normal children of equivalent mental age were observed during a free-play situation as well as during separation from and reunion with their mothers and a stranger. As a group, the autistic children showed evidence of attachment to their mothers, directing more social behaviors and more physical contact to their caregivers than to the stranger during the reunion episodes. Within the autistic group, the children who showed an increase in attachment behaviors in response to separation and reunion demonstrated more advanced symbolic play skills than those autistic children who showed no change in attachment behaviors. One possible explanation may be that autistic children require more advanced levels of symbolic ability to form attachments to others than is necessary for the development of attachments in normal children.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007223	Infant	A child between 1 and 23 months of age.	Infants
D007802	Language	A verbal or nonverbal means of communicating ideas or feelings.	Dialect,Dialects,Languages
D008297	Male		Males
D009034	Mother-Child Relations	Interaction between a mother and child.	Mother-Child Interaction,Mother-Child Relationship,Mother-Infant Interaction,Mother-Infant Relations,Interaction, Mother-Child,Interaction, Mother-Infant,Interactions, Mother-Child,Interactions, Mother-Infant,Mother Child Interaction,Mother Child Relations,Mother Child Relationship,Mother Infant Interaction,Mother Infant Relations,Mother-Child Interactions,Mother-Child Relation,Mother-Child Relationships,Mother-Infant Interactions,Mother-Infant Relation,Relation, Mother-Child,Relation, Mother-Infant,Relations, Mother-Child,Relations, Mother-Infant,Relationship, Mother-Child,Relationships, Mother-Child
D009769	Object Attachment	Emotional attachment to someone or something in the environment.	Bonding (Psychology),Bonds, Emotional,Emotional Bonds,Object Relations,Symbiotic Relations (Psychology),Bonding, Psychological,Object Relationship,Psychological Bonding,Attachment, Object,Attachments, Object,Bond, Emotional,Bondings (Psychology),Emotional Bond,Object Attachments,Object Relation,Object Relationships,Relation, Object,Relation, Symbiotic (Psychology),Relations, Object,Relations, Symbiotic (Psychology),Relationship, Object,Relationships, Object,Symbiotic Relation (Psychology)
D010988	Play and Playthings	Spontaneous or voluntary recreational activities pursued for enjoyment and accessories or equipment used in the activities; includes games, toys, etc.	Puppets,Toys,Play,Playthings,Plays,Plaything,Playthings and Play,Puppet,Toy
D002675	Child, Preschool	A child between the ages of 2 and 5.	Children, Preschool,Preschool Child,Preschool Children
D003210	Concept Formation	A cognitive process involving the formation of ideas generalized from the knowledge of qualities, aspects, and relations of objects.	Concept Acquisition,Concept Learning,Conceptualization,Acquisition, Concept,Acquisitions, Concept,Concept Acquisitions,Formation, Concept,Learning, Concept
D005260	Female		Females
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man