Brief report: lie-telling in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

OBJECTIVES

The lie-telling abilities of children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) (aged 4-8 years) were tested using a temptation resistance paradigm.

METHODS

Children were told not to peek at a forbidden toy while left alone in a room. Later children were asked if they peeked at the toy as well as follow-up questions to see if they could conceal their peeking behavior and maintain their lie in subsequent verbal statements.

RESULTS

Approximately 78% of the children peeked at the toy. However, 94% of the FASD children lied about peeking, a rate that is much higher than the non-FASD control group (72%). As age increased, FASD children were better at concealing their lies and maintaining semantic leakage control than non-FASD children.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the first study to specifically test lying in children with FASD and has implications for remediation and understanding secondary disabilities in these children, which will lead to further research in this area.