Expression of Emotion in Young Autistic Children

Expression of emotion was examined in a group of 10 preschool‐aged autistic children and a control group of 10 developmentally delayed children matched for chronological and mental age. Each child was videotaped for 15 minutes of interaction with the mother, a child psychiatrist, and the nursery school teacher. Affective expression was recorded using a behavior checklist. The autistic children were found to display less positive affect that the delayed children (p < 0.01). In addition, the positive affect displayed by the autistic children was less likely to be partner‐related and more likely to be related to self‐absorbed activity than was the case with the delayed children (p < 0.001). The groups were not found to differ in the frequency of negative affect.