Study On Time Estimation In Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Time estimation refers to the basic human ability to register the passage of time,connect that information to current behavior,and file it away for future use.Time estimation,also called time representation,is that individuals represent and judge the temporal information of physical time,biological time,historic and individuals’ life time.It has been demonstrated that students with autism spectrum disorder(ASD)are deficient in time estimation.But other studies find students with ASD have intact ability in verbal time estimation task.And some investigators consider that time estimation of students with ASD are related to their deficit in symptoms of ASD.18 students with ASD(6-18 years)and 18 students in control group(8-10 years)were invited to this study.Motor timing task and key-pressing time reproduction task measured student with ASD and controls to investigate characteristics of time estimation in students with ASD.And using Childhood Autism Rating Scale(CARS)measured symptoms of ASD in students with ASD.Finally,we explored the characters of time estimation in students with ASD.This study draws the following conclusions:(1)In the motor timing task,students with ASD performed less accuracy and more variable than controls,and compared with controls,students with ASD performed less learning ability and different learning characters.(2)In the time reproduction task,students with ASD performed less accuracy and more variable than controls,and compared with controls,students with ASD preferred to overestimate short interval and underestimate long interval..(3)For students with ASD,symptoms of ASD and performing of time estimation had significant negative correlation.(4)Students with ASD have deficit in time estimation.