Brief Report: A Theory-of-Mind-based Social-Cognition Training Program for School-Aged Children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders: An Open Study of its Effectiveness

Children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) are impaired by early onset difficulties in reciprocal social interaction. It has been proposed that this social impairment is the result of a lack of Theory of Mind (ToM): the ability to attribute mental states (e.g., beliefs, desires, intentions, and emotions) to others and to use these in predicting and explaining the behavior of others (Baron-Cohen, 1995; Serra et al., 1995). Research has shown that this ability is seriously impaired in autistic children (Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith, 1985), and moderately impaired in children with Pervasive Developmental Disorders, Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) (Baron-Cohen & Swettenham, 1997; Happé, 1995; Perner & Wimmer, 1985). This impairment may limit PDD-NOS children in their understanding of humor and irony, and restrict their ability to take into account the interests and knowledge of a partner in social conversation (Serra, Loth, van Geert, Hurkens, & Minderaa, 2002). …