Autism and The Theory of Mind

Autism has a special place in my heart. Growing up, my godmother would watch me and her two sons during summer breaks. One of her sons had Autism Spectrum Disorder or ASD, and I would later discover that both my godmother and her husband also had ASD. Those summers gave me such a big heart for people with ASD, and getting to know more about the development of people with this disorder was such a wonderful opportunity. I decided to read a study about the effects of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder on the development of the Theory of Mind, or ToM. The Theory of Mind is the ability to identify different feelings, thoughts, and behaviors in both yourself and other people. For example, being able to understand that just because you are sad does not mean that people around you are sad.

Autism and Understanding the Theory of Mind

The major hypothesis of this study is that having child-aged siblings to a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder would affect the Theory of Mind development of autistic children. They also studied to see if the position of the child with ASD within the sibling constellation would play a role in that student’s development of the Theory of Mind. This study directly relates to child development because it has to do with a child’s development of the Theory of Mind, which affects social and emotional growth. Having a strong development of ToM helps the child become more in tune with their own emotions as well as understand the thoughts, feelings, and motives of the actions of other people throughout life, especially their peers.

The article also talks about a couple of studies, such as a well-known Theory of Mind study by Wellman and Liu (2004). The research measured executive function, or EF, which is based on a study by McAlister and Peterson (2006). EF was measured in two parts: the ability to navigate a route and the resistance of instruction. This test also measured linguistic ability based on a test conducted by Dunn and Dunn (1997). In the article being reviewed, the children being studied were given a picture vocabulary test and were scored based on their performance on that test. The children were also given the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) to confirm their diagnosis of autism and to see the severity of the symptoms.

Methodology

The children being observed all had a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. All of the siblings being observed were developing typically. The mean age of the siblings is 5.50 years, and the average age gap in chronological age from the child with ASD was 2.70 years. 25% of the children with ASD had no siblings, 47% had just one, and the other 28% had two or more siblings. The study had a sample of 60 Australians and New Zealanders (54 male; 6 female) aged between 3.6 and 12.6 years old.

The study conducted its research in many different ways. Since it was researching the theory of mind, some of the tasks were analyzing changed-location false belief, misleading-container false belief, and representational change. One of the tests was between two children, child A and child B. When child A was away, child B would move a marble to a new hiding place. They tested to see if child A would look for the marble in a new place or the same location as they previously saw the marble. Another test with the misleading-container false belief had to do with a closed box of candy that actually contained pencils. They would ask the child what they thought was in the box, then reflect on the situation after opening the box and ask what the child thought was going to be in the box before it was opened. The test subjects were also observed on their appearance to real connection. This was tested by showing the participants a sponge that appeared as a rock and seeing if the child could accurately name both what was the apparent (rock) and what was the true (sponge) identities of the item. They were tested on more appearance and true identity issues, such as if a banana was a banana or a phone after giving the child a period of time to engage in pretend play. One important aspect of this study is that when asking comprehension control questions, there is always a correct answer to gauge the child’s comprehension and actually see where the development of the theory of mind was.

Results and Discussion

This study was correlational and was laboratory/clinic-based. If it were field-based, the researchers would have observed the children in a different setting, such as at home or school. Since they had children in a controlled setting where they were given specific tasks/questions, this was a laboratory/clinic-based study.

Originally, the study was focusing on if the presence of at least one child-aged sibling was associated with the theory of mind development in children with autism, and they found that there was not a significant correlation between autistic children with or without siblings around their age. According to this study, having one or more typically developing child-aged siblings was not associated with a more advanced Theory of Mind development for autistic children. This study also tested if the age of the ASD child in comparison to their sibling’s ages would influence their performance of Theory of Mind. The study found that a child’s position in the family’s constellation, or birth order, affected the child’s ToM development and performance. Being the baby of the family (only having siblings that are older than you) was not significant, but there was a significant contrast between having no older siblings and at least one older sibling. Having younger siblings had no major contrast either. This demonstrates that having older siblings in the family is associated with drastically lower Theory of Mind scores in children with autism spectrum disorder, even if they have a younger sibling.

Implications and Limitations

This study could be used in an academic setting to understand how students are developing at different rates based on situations at home. Just because you have two students in your classroom with autism does not mean that they are going to be developing at the same rate; one might have an older sibling, and another might have only younger siblings. The birth order of students affects the child a lot, even if they are close with their siblings. We can use this information so that we may be more understanding of our students and help them grow in the development of Theory of Mind by giving them opportunities to play, interact with other students in a fun environment, and reflect on their own emotions as well as the emotions of other people.

I think that this study was limited a lot based on the region of the world they were in. It would be interesting to see this study done again in Asia, Europe, North America, and/or South America. It would also be interesting if they incorporated more girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder into the study instead of having the majority of the participants be male. A broader geographical and gender representation could provide more diverse insights into the Theory of Mind development among children with ASD. I think that the study was clear enough on its own, but I would have understood the concepts and questions being asked to the participants more if there was a video of the study actually taking place. If I were the researcher, I would have recreated the study in other regions of the world and incorporate more female participants into the pool of children being studied. I also would have increased the general number of participants from 60 to 120 just to see a wider range of data.

Conclusion

Researching more about the development of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder was an enlightening experience for me. I am looking forward to taking this research into my own classroom and applying my heart for children with special needs to my teaching and life in general.

References

• Dunn, L. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1997). Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (3rd ed.). American Guidance Service.
• McAlister, A., & Peterson, C. C. (2006). The relationship between executive function and theory of mind. Child Development, 77(2), 502-517.
• Wellman, H. M., & Liu, D. (2004). Scaling of theory-of-mind tasks. Child Development, 75(2), 523-541.