A COMPARATIVE AND DEVELOPMENTAL STUDY OF HYPERACTIVITY AND ITS RELATED SYMPTOMS IN AUTISTIC AND HYPERACTIVE CHILDREN

Abstract

It has been recognized that the children with minor brain dysfunction syndrome show various behavior disorders such as high level of motor activities (hyperactivities), short attention span, low frustration tolerance, hyperexcitability, low ability of impulse control, disabilities in academic skills, difficulties in interpersonal relationships. In the present study, authors aimed to clarify the developmental aspects of these symptoms, to compare those of autistic children with hyperactive ones. Subjects used in this study were 28 children. And they were divided into two groups according to the symptoms "aloneness" or "lack of affective contacts". One was the autistic group (14 subjects, the mean CA was 6.7 years, ranged from 4.9 to 11.4 years), and the other was the hyperactive group (14 subjects, the mean CA was 5.7 years, ranged from 2.1 to 8.1 years). Those children who had EEG abnormalities, epileptic seizures, gross motor disorders, hearing handicaps and visual handicaps were excluded. The data used in this study contained detailed histories of the development of each children reported in their own parents' interview. And these data were analyzed corresponding to three successive phases of the course of the development. The first phase was from birth to the establishment of walking behavior (the walking),the second one was from the walking to 25 months after the walking, and the third one was from the walking to 60 months after the walking. The behaviors used as indexes of the development in each phases were as follows; Phase I: sucking behaviors, cryings for feeding, responses to stimuli, smiling behaviors, babblings and attachment to the person. Phase II: hyperactive behaviors, temper tantrums and perseverative behaviors. Phase III: verbal behaviors, pointing behaviors, eye to eye contacts, sympathetic smilings and imitative behaviors. The results obtained were as follows; 1) On the phase I , the both groups showed similar behavior disturbances or symptoms. In the hyperactive group, the symptom first appeared was hyperactivity, and then came temper tantrum and perseveration. In the autistic group, first appeared temper tantrum or emotional lability whose causes were not clear. These results suggested that one of the main difficulties found in hyperactive children was disability to control motoric activities. On the other hand, autistic children suffered from self-controlling emotional activities. 2) Characteristic differences in hyperactive behaviors were also found in both groups. While in the autistic group, their hyperactive behaviors were sometimes characterized as "self-generative" or "self-stimulative" stereotyped movements, few hyperactive children showed such movements. Their movements might be rather classified as impulsive approaches to objects and a lack of concentration. 3) On the phase III, adaptive behaviors such as verbal behaviors, eye to eye contacts, pointing behaviors, sympathetic smilings and imitative behaviors were developed gradually in the hyperactive group. Verbal behaviors and eye to eye contacts behaviors disappeared suddenly in the autistic group during 24 months after the walking. The affective contacts to the person also disappeared. These developmental processes were recognized as one of the features characteristic of autistic children. According to recent researches, it was suggested that those "regressions" would be attributed to the disintegration of the motor and sensory systems into the highly organized behavior.