Does Teaching Theory of Mind Have an Effect on the Ability to Develop Conversation in Children with Autism?
Abstract
The present research examined whether teaching children with autism to pass tasks that assess mental state understanding had any positive effects on communication. Two aspects of communication previously shown to be deficient in children with autism were considered. These are conversational ability, in particular the ability to expand on conversation, and the use of mental state terms in speech. Results showed that no discernible improvement was seen on either measure of communication following mental state teaching. Discussion centers on real versus superficial changes in understanding mental states as a result of teaching.
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Interventions teaching people with ASD to recognize emotions from simplified stimuli often improve performance on simplified tasks but not in real-world social interactions.
“Further, performance on simplified social cognitive tasks does not always track with the severity of social deficits in ASD (37, 38), and interventions teaching people with ASD to recognize emotions from simplified stimuli often improve performance on simplified tasks but not in real-world social interactions (39, 40).”
From The neural bases of empathic accuracy (2009) · cites this paper as [40]
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- Authors
- Hadwin, J., Baron-Cohen, S., Howlin, P., & Hill, K.
- Affiliations
- University of Kent (GB)
- University of London (GB)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Venue
- Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders
- Published
- 1997-10
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 519-537
- ISSN
- 0162-3257 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-3432
- OpenAlex
- W1555380166
- Cited by
- 169
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 4 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 2.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Kent Academic Repository (University of Kent) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Social Robot Interaction and HRI
- Keywords
- theory of mind, autism spectrum disorder, conversation skills, communication skills, educational intervention, children
- MeSH terms
- Autistic Disorder, Child, Cognition, Communication, Communication Disorders, Female, Humans, Language Development Disorders, Male, Models, Psychological, Social Behavior, Speech, Teaching, Verbal Behavior, Vocabulary
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