Séminaire SLS : conférence d'Olga Capirci (ISTC-CNR Rome)

16
Dec.
2024.
14h00
16h00
The body at the center: starting from actions and gestures to understand autism

Conférence d'Olga Capirci

The body at the center: starting from actions and gestures to understand autism

For embodied cognition theories, perception, action and cognition are seen as mutually dependent, as three processes that together form a functional system, guided by intentions, around which adaptive behaviors develop. Considering the notion of embodiment appears intuitively relevant to understanding autism, because people with ASD show specific difficulties precisely in intentional understanding and in being automatically and implicitly engaged-connected with other people.

Today it is widely recognized that gestures represent for everyone, even for children with typical development, a useful support for communicative and linguistic development and there is various evidence showing how the use of gestures can improve communication and social interaction even for children with autism at a very early age.

The presentation addresses the theme of the body in relation to Autism through a review of studies that concern two particular areas: motor deficits and gestures. In particular, the relationships between motor development and gestures and subsequent linguistic development will be highlighted and, in conclusion, the implications that these studies have for the clinic will be considered.

There is certainly still a long way to go to "give autism a body", and therefore discover the link between sensorimotor characteristics and the way in which autistic people give meaning to their world. In the future we should try to move towards an evolutionary approach to autism that seeks to integrate the three key elements, namely the body (perception, action), interactions and development, with the communicative, emotional-affective and social aspects.

 

La séance sera interprétée anglais/LSF

Interprété en LSF