Accès à la fonction symbolique et acquisition des compétences sociocognitives chez l’enfant l’autiste scolarisé de 2 à 7 ans

Abstract

This study is entitled: access to symbolic function and acquisition of sociocognitive skills in autistic children aged 2 to7.The general objective is to show how the ability to access the symbolic function determines the acquisition of sociocognitive skills in autistic children. As a guide to the problem posed, we used Piaget’s theoretical approach to cognitive development (1942), Pascual-Leone’s theory of constructive operators (1972) and Bandura’s theory of social learning (1977). Faced with this problem, we asked the following research question: how does the ability to access symbolic function determine the acquisition of sociocognitive skills in autistic children aged 2 to7?To answer this research question,we formulated the following general hypothesis: the ability to access the symbolic function determines the acquisition of sociocognitive skills in the autistic child from 2 to 7 years through the internalized imitation, object representation and figurative schemas. This hypothesis has been operationalised into three specific hypotheses formulated as follows: HR1: the ability to access interiorized imitation contributes to the acquisition of sociocognitive skills in autistic children aged 2 to 7 through imitation/retention and interiorized thinking; HR2: the ability to access object representation improves the acquisition of sociocognitive skills in autistic children aged 2 to 7 through the representation of things and words; HR3: The ability to access figurative patterns promotes the acquisition of sociocognitive skills in autistic children aged 2 to 7 through the representation of mental states. To assess the relevance of these research hypotheses, we opted for two data collection tools: the Childhood Autism Assessment Scale and the Observation Grid for four autistic students between the ages of 5 and 7. The results obtained showed that the ability to access the symbolic function determines the acquisition of sociocognitive skills in autistic children through interiorized imitation, object representation and figurative schemas. At the end of this work, some suggestions were made to the people who are involved in supporting these autistic children and perspectives were developed.