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Creativity in Autism: An Examination of General and Mathematical Creative Thinking Among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Children with Typical Development

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Abstract

This study investigated creative thinking abilities among two groups of 20 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) compared to 20 children with typical development ages 9–11. The study compared performance on two different creativity tests: general creativity (Pictorial Multiple Solutions-PMS) test versus mathematical creativity (Creating Equal Number-CEN) test, and investigated relationships between general and mathematical creative thinking across various cognitive measures including non-verbal IQ, verbal and non-verbal working memory and Attention. Results of the study demonstrate significant correlations among the measures of creativity indicating that the PMS and the CEN tasks represent different skills, or perhaps, different domains of creativity. Findings suggest that creativity can be found among individuals with ASD.

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Acknowledgments

A partial version of this study was presented at the 2018 INSAR conference in Rotterdam. The preparation of this paper is partially based on a master’s thesis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Special Education, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, 31905, Haifa, Israel

    Orit Hetzroni, Hila Agada & Mark Leikin

  2. RANGE Center, Neuro-Cognitive Laboratory for the Investigation of Creativity, Ability and Giftedness, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Mark Leikin

  3. The Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Mark Leikin

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  1. Orit Hetzroni
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  2. Hila Agada
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  3. Mark Leikin
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Contributions

OH participated in the conceptual framing of the study, the design, data analysis, and in writing the manuscript; HA participated in the design, data collection, data analysis, and the initial writing of the study; ML participated in the conceptual framing of the study, the design, data analysis, and in writing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Orit Hetzroni.

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Appendices

Appendix 1

Pictorial Multiple Solution Task

figure a

Appendix 2

Mathematical Multiple Solution Task

The initial stage of the CEN Task (Tsamir et al. 2009).

figure b

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Hetzroni, O., Agada, H. & Leikin, M. Creativity in Autism: An Examination of General and Mathematical Creative Thinking Among Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Children with Typical Development. J Autism Dev Disord 49, 3833–3844 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04094-x

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