Abstract:

The aim of this study is to examine the correlation between the autism symptoms of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and the visual-spatial perceptions and face recognition skills of the parents of these children. In the study, the parents of 30 children (30 mothers, 30 fathers) diagnosed with Intellectual Developmental Disorder and the parents of 30 children (30 mothers, 30 fathers) without any psychiatric disorder, totally 180 people, were assessed in order to compare the data of the parents of 30 children (30 mothers, 30 fathers) diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Autism Behavior Checklist (ABC) was used in order to assess the symptoms of the children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Benton’s Judgment of Line Orientation Test (BJLO), Benton Facial Recognition Test (BFRT), and Symptom Checklist (SCL-90) were used in order to assess the parents in three groups. It was found that there was no correlation between the autism symptoms of the children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and the visual-spatial perceptions and face recognition skills of their parents. The spatial perception skills of the fathers in the Autism Spectrum Disorder group were higher compared to the mothers in this group (p<0.001), it was found that the 14.4% (p=0.022) of the BFRT scores of the fathers in the Autism Spectrum Disorder and 11.8% (p=0.035) of the BFRT scores of the fathers in the Intellectual Developmental Disorder group were explained by the BJLO scores. It may be useful to focus on the gender, face recognition skill and the visual-spatial perception performance when researching the genetical aspects of the face processing disorder seen as consistent information in the Autism Spectrum Disorder phenotype

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