The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

A young female chimpanzee, Elia, resides at the Jeunes Animaux Confisques au Katanga (JACK), a chimpanzee sanctuary in the Lubumbashi Zoo, Democratic Republic of Congo. Elia is a bush meat orphan who witnessed the slaughter of her mother prior to spending the following three years in a large bird cage where she remained in social isolation until approximately 4.5 years of age. During this period, Elia’s diet consisted almost entirely of peanuts from neighbouring onlookers and water was abusively administered through a garden spray nozzle. Little more is known regarding Elia’s early life, but upon arriving at JACK on 22 October, 2009, many teeth immediately fell out while attempting to eat apples for her first time. Elia was placed into an enclosure with Joma, another chimpanzee of approximately the same age, but Joma displayed some fear behaviours in Elia’s presence. Due to prolonged isolation, Directors Franck and Roxane Chantereau decided to place Elia and Joma into a social group of their approximate age. Unfortunately, this decision resulted in violent aggression directed toward Elia until Roxane returned her to the quarantine enclosure.

Video documentation demonstrates qualitative and quantitative impairments of Elia’s social interaction, deficits in the use and production of communicative means, and cyclic CNS activity producing repetitive behaviours. Elia remained aloof throughout her introduction to JACK, and it was only upon observation in isolation that Roxane detected no eye contact. Further, Elia produced no socially engaging behaviour directed towards her, and no invitations to play were initiated with the young chimpanzees in neighbouring cages. Once social demands exceeded Elia’s limited capacities, Roxane detected almost complete lack of typical chimpanzee vocalization and no gestural demonstration of needs. Hypersensitivity and motor stereotypies, including prolonged side-to-side rocking, were observed. Nesting materials became the focus of excessive ritualized behaviour as all straw that could be held was gathered during the rocking behaviour. I asked Roxane to present Elia with her favourite fruits and milk, only to steal them away during feeding as a simple test of Elia’s social awareness. Elia did not protest vocally, nor did she display any physical behaviour typical of a chimpanzee juvenile robbed of her favourite treats. Elia did demonstrate a powerfully fixed interest on a plastic formula bottle, not as the item, but as a category of objects such that a soiled or damaged bottle could be removed during sleep if replaced with the same type of bottle without waking. This bottle was not used for sucking as the nipple and cap were not attached. Using the above as the initial basis for determination, this author describes Elia as autistic in accord with the revisions proposed for DSM-5, § 299.00 Autistic Disorder.

On 27 March, 2010, Roxane requested that I develop a therapeutic intervention to enable Elia’s integration into a chimpanzee social group. Applied behaviour analysis was not chosen as the basis for treatment. Those areas of Elia’s brain that faltered under the weight of severe malnutrition, abuse, and social isolation did not grow through developmentally age appropriate social stimulation. While those aspects of her brain yet retained some degree of plasticity, I decided to orient further interactions to target specific neurological systems as if she were much younger, and so providing social stimulation based upon developmental age instead of chronological age. Mirror neurons permeate the cerebral cortex, and myriad regions of the infant brain mature differentially, suggesting that sensitive periods for diverse aspects of mimicry, imitation, goal emulation, and features of reciprocal behaviours are certain. Therefore, the initial phase of this intervention required no less than four 15-minute sessions each day of modified play therapy where motor stereotypies were playfully mimicked. Newborns are capable of imitating another, and very young infants display behaviours when imitated, ostensibly through a competent mirror neuron system. Two months playing games of imitation in low stress settings became the basis for Elia’s attachment to Roxane.

Once Elia demonstrated an awareness of another and appeared capable of exploring all aspects of her enclosure with Roxane as a secure base, I decided to enhance Elia’s developmentally age appropriate social stimulation by placing her into the much larger enclosure for infants between approximately 1 and 3 years of age. This decision was based upon 3 key points; (a) the very young would be expected to view the larger Elia as something of a surrogate mother figure and may desire prosocial interactions, (b) the various activities Elia would witness may provide additional developmentally age appropriate social stimulation for imitation through a now more active mirror neuron system, and (c) her larger size might serve to support her self-confidence. On 17 June, 2010, Elia was sedated by Jean-Claude, a resident Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) veterinarian, and transferred into the infant enclosure to become acquainted with her new surroundings. On the following morning, she was allowed to watch the infants leave the enclosure and enter the main habitat. Roxane sat with Elia on the ground of the open air habitat while Elia touched the Earth for the first time in more than a year.

By 21 July, 2010, Elia had fully integrated into the infant group and occasionally shared a nest with infant Maïka. As of 03 November, 2010, Elia is approximately 5 years old and appears to progress at approximately the same pace as her much younger social group. Continuing photographic and video documentation indicates that she continues to prefer solitary play and maintains a fixation with the plastic formula bottle, but now demonstrates strong desire for social contact with Vida, the youngest and most recent addition to the infant social group. Elia does not evince maternal behaviours towards Vida, but strongly prosocial activities including bouts of tickle-wrestling are common. Presently, Elia appears to demonstrate some cognitive and social maturation in accord with her developmentally age appropriate cohort, including limited play invitation behaviours, and the beginnings of simple tool use.