Maya is a five-year-old girl in her school’s reception class. Her teacher notices that she exhibits several distinctive behaviours. During conversations, Maya avoids eye contact and, instead of asking for a snack, she repeatedly chants a slogan from a television commercial she heard earlier. At recess, Maya often approaches other children and talks at length about washing machine spin cycles, completely failing to notice when they look bored or walk away. Additionally, she insists on walking along the exact same yellow line painted on the playground every afternoon, becoming highly agitated and screaming if another child blocks her path.
Outline what is meant by the 'triad of impairments' in autism. Refer to the description of Maya in your answer.
Practise AQA A Level Psychology Development of social cognition with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 49 questions, matched to the AQA A Level Psychology (7182) specification and written in Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3 style. Every question includes a full worked solution and mark scheme, so you can see where marks are awarded rather than just whether you got the answer right.
