Abstract
Children with autism-spectrum disorders (ASD) often fail laboratory false-belief tests of theory of mind (ToM). Yet how this impacts on their everyday social behavior is less clear, partly owing to uncertainty over which specific everyday conversational and social skills require ToM understanding. A new caregiver-report scale of these everyday applications of ToM was developed and validated in two studies. Study 1 obtained parent ratings of 339 children (85 with autism; 230 with Asperger’s; 24 typically-developing) on the new scale and results revealed (a) that the scale had good psychometric properties and (b) that children with ASD had significantly more everyday mindreading difficulties than typical developers. In Study 2, we directly tested links between laboratory ToM and everyday mindreading using teacher ratings on the new scale. The sample of 25 children included 15 with autism and 10 typical developers aged 5–12 years. Children in both groups who passed laboratory ToM tests had fewer everyday mindreading difficulties than those of the same diagnosis who failed. Yet, intriguingly, autistic ToM-passers still had more problems with everyday mindreading than younger typically-developing ToM-failers. The possible roles of family conversation and peer interaction, along with ToM, in everyday social functioning were considered.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association (1994) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th edn. APA, Washington DC
Astington JW (2001) The future of theory of mind research. Child Dev 72:685–687
Astington JW (2003) Sometimes necessary, never sufficient: false belief and social competence. In: Repacholi B, Slaughter V (eds) Individual differences in theory of mind: implications for typical and atypical development. Psychology Press, Hove, pp 13–38
Baron-Cohen S, Leslie A, Frith U (1985) Does the autistic child have a theory of mind? Cognition 21:37–46
Baron-Cohen S (1995) Mindblindness. MIT Press, Cambridge
Baron-Cohen S (2000) Theory of mind and autism: a 15 year review. In: Baron-Cohen S, Tager-Flusberg H, Cohen D (eds) Understanding other minds. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 3–20
Bishop D, Baird G (2001) Parent and teacher report of pragmatic aspects of communication. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 43:809–818
Bruner J, Feldman C (1993) Theories of mind and the problem of autism. In: Baron-Cohen S, Tager-Flusberg H, Cohen D (Eds.) Understanding otherminds. Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 267–291
Dissanayake C, MacIntosh K (2003) In: Repacholi B, Slaughter V (eds) Individual differences in theory of mind: implications for typical and atypical development. Psychology Press, Hove, pp 213–240
Dunn J (1996) The Emanuel Miller Memorial Lecture: 1995. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 37:507–518
Eisenmajer R, Prior M (1991) Cognitive and linguistic correlates theory of mind ability in autistic children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 9:351–364
Frith U, Happe F, Siddons F (1994) Autism and theory of mind in everyday life. Soc Dev 3:108–123
Garfield J, Peterson CC, Perry T (2001) Social cognition, language acquisition and the development of theory of mind. Mind Lang 16:494–541
Grandin T (2006) Thinking in pictures. London, Bloomsbury Publishing
Happé F (1995) The role of age and verbal ability in the ToM performance of subjects with autism. Child Dev 66:843–855
Hughes C, Soares-Boucaud J, Hochman F, Frith U (1997) Social behavior in pervasive developmental disorders. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 6:191–198
Knott F, Dunlop A, Mackay T (2006) Living with ASD: How do children and their parents assess their difficulties with social interaction and understanding? Autism 10:609–617
Lalonde C, Chandler M (1995) False belief understanding goes to school. Cogn Emot 9:167–185
Leslie AM, Thaiss L (1992) Domain specificity and conceptual development. Cognition 43:225–251
Losh M, Capps L (2006) Understanding of emotional experience in autism: insights from personal accounts of high-functioning children with autism. Dev Psychol 41:809–818
Peterson C, Siegal M (1999) Representing inner worlds: theory of mind in autistic, deaf, and normal hearing children. Psychol Sci 10(2):126–129
Peterson CC, Siegal M (2000) Insights into a theory of mind from deafness and autism. Mind Lang 16:77–99
Ronald A, Happe F, Hughes C, Plomin R (2005) Nice and nasty theory of mind in preschool children: nature versus nurture. Soc Dev 14:664–684
Sparrow S, Balla D, Cicchetti D (1984) Vineland adaptive behavior scale. American Guidance Service, Circle Pines
Tabachnick B, Fidell L (1989) Using multivariate statistics. Harper-Collins, New York
Tager-Flusberg H (2003) Exploring the relationship between theory of mind and social-communicative functioning in children with autism. In: Repacholi B, Slaughter V (eds) Individual differences in theory of mind: implications for typical and atypical development. Psychology Press, Hove, pp 197–212
Wellman HM, Cross D, Watson J (2001) Meta-analysis of theory-of-mind development: the truth about false belief. Child Dev 72:655–684
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Peterson, C.C., Garnett, M., Kelly, A. et al. Everyday social and conversation applications of theory-of-mind understanding by children with autism-spectrum disorders or typical development. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 18, 105–115 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-008-0711-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-008-0711-y