Theory of Mind Among Swedish Children with ASD, Down Syndrome and Typically Developing Group

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazila Shojaeian ◽  
Zeyun Li ◽  
Rahul Pratap Singh Kaurav ◽  
Ashraf Atta M. S. Salem
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Children With Asd

scholarly journals Children’s Pronoun Interpretation Problems Are Related to Theory of Mind and Inhibition, But Not Working Memory

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanne J. M. Kuijper ◽  
Catharina A. Hartman ◽  
Petra Hendriks
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Object Pronouns

In several languages, including English and Dutch, children’s acquisition of the interpretation of object pronouns (e.g., him) is delayed compared to that of reflexives (e.g., himself). Various syntactic and pragmatic explanations have been proposed to account for this delay in children’s acquisition of pronoun interpretation. This study aims to provide more insight into this delay by investigating potential cognitive mechanisms underlying this delay. Dutch-speaking children between 6 and 12 years old with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 47), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 36) or typical development (TD; n = 38) were tested on their interpretation and production of object pronouns and reflexives and on theory of mind, working memory, and response inhibition. It was found that all three groups of children had difficulty with pronoun interpretation and that their performance on pronoun interpretation was associated with theory of mind and inhibition. These findings support an explanation of object pronoun interpretation in terms of perspective taking, according to which listeners need to consider the speaker’s perspective in order to block coreference between the object pronoun and the subject of the same sentence. Unlike what is predicted by alternative theoretical accounts, performance on pronoun interpretation was not associated with working memory, and the children made virtually no errors in their production of object pronouns. As the difficulties with pronoun interpretation were similar for children with ASD, children with ADHD and typically developing children, this suggests that certain types of perspective taking are unaffected in children with ASD and ADHD.

scholarly journals Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder Can Attribute False Beliefs in a Spontaneous-Response Preferential-Looking Task

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Glenwright ◽  
Rose M. Scott ◽  
Elena Bilevicius ◽  
Megan Pronovost ◽  
Ana Hanlon-Dearman
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Figurative Language ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
False Belief ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
False Belief Understanding ◽  
Children With Asd

An established body of literature indicates that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulty understanding figurative language due to a deficit in theory of mind, or the ability to consider the beliefs of other people. Children with ASD tend to similarly fail traditional theory of mind tasks, which assess their ability to represent false beliefs. Our claim is, however, that these tasks involve cognitive processing demands that might mask false belief understanding because they require elicited responses. We examined whether children with ASD demonstrate false-belief understanding when tested with a spontaneous-response false belief task that measures children’s eye gaze durations. The two child participant groups were composed of 20 males with ASD (aged 3–9 years) and 20 typically developing males (aged 2–5 years) who were individually matched according to verbal mental age. Children with ASD and typically developing children listened to a change-of-location story accompanied by a book with matching and non-matching pictures. The final page showed the character searching for her object in a location that was either consistent or inconsistent with her belief. Both groups of children looked reliably longer at the belief-consistent picture, regardless of whether the character’s belief was true or false, though children with ASD were slower to do so. We suggest that a spontaneous-response assessment technique can potentially reveal figurative language comprehension in children with ASD in future research.

Theory of Mind in Autistic Children

2011 ◽  
pp. 167-179
Author(s):  
Tariq M. Khan
Keyword(s):  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Analogical Reasoning ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Learning Systems ◽  
Multimedia System ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Autistic Children ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Potential Benefits

The authors discuss how multimedia learning systems and analogical reasoning could be used to help autistic children cope with the demands of reasoning abstractly and to develop their Theory of Mind. Learners with autism have problems reasoning about other’s mental states and beliefs, which has been coined Theory of Mind. The specially developed systems proved beneficial for the autistic children, which highlights the potential benefits that a multimedia system can have as a learning tool for Theory of Mind. However, there is some doubt over the usefulness of interactivity for learning beyond its enhancement of enjoyment and sense of participation. It is intended that the results will stimulate a reassessment of current multimedia theories as they relate to non-typically developing learners, and provide new directions for research in the area of support for children with ASD.

Imitation Recognition by Minimally Verbal Young Children: A Comparison Between Down Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder

2021 ◽  
pp. 108835762110350
Author(s):  
Gökhan Töret
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Spectrum Disorder ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Minimally Verbal ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Minimally Verbal Children

Research has shown that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display limited imitation recognition behaviors in comparison with typically developing children. However, the levels of imitation recognition of minimally verbal children with ASD relative to those with developmental disabilities are unknown. The purpose of this study was to compare the imitation recognition behaviors of 20 minimally verbal children with ASD and 20 minimally verbal children with Down syndrome (DS) when imitated by an adult in a play context. Results showed that children with ASD display more limited imitation recognition than children with DS. These results indicate that children with ASD are weaker in displaying imitation recognition. On the contrary, both groups display an association between imitation recognition and a variety of play actions in both groups.

scholarly journals CHARACTERISTIC OF SPEECH OF CHILDREN AGED 6-7 YEARS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS AND DOWN SYNDROME

2018 ◽  
pp. 22-37
Author(s):  
Viktor A. Gorodnyi ◽  
◽  
Elena E. Lyakso ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Speech Development ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
High Pitch ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Articulation Index ◽  
Spectrum Disorders

In this work, the data on the features of speech development in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and with Down syndrome (DS) are presented. Methods of perceptual experiment and instrumental analysis were used. It is shown that in typically developing (TD) children the values of vowel articulation index of stressed vowels in words are maximal in comparison with the corresponding characteristic in children with ASD and children with DS. The words of children with ASD are characterized by high pitch values of words and stressed vowels as well as high values of vowel articulation index. The words of children with DS, besides high pitch values of words and stressed vowels noticed for children with ASD, had maximum duration of words and stressed vowels, low values of the vowel articulation index of stressed vowels. In children with DS, more types of consonant phonemes were not formed compared to children with ASD and TD ones; in addition, children with DS used consonants that do not exist in the Russian language.

scholarly journals Improving Theory of Mind Skills in Down Syndrome? A Pilot Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-31
Author(s):  
Annick Comblain ◽  
Coraline Schmetz
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Training Session ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Specific Training ◽  
Mental Age ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Post Test

Effective communication requires an understanding of the interlocutor's perspective. Being able to infer someone else's knowledge about a situation is a critical skill in any communication and social interaction. These abilities are part of Theory of Mind (ToM) skills and are known to be impaired in Down syndrome (DS). It therefore makes sense to investigate ToM development in this population. In our pilot study, we explore the possibility of improving ToM abilities in participants with DS and typically developing (TD) children matched for nonverbal mental age. Participants were assessed with the French adaptation of the “ToM Inventory” before and after a 10-week training session. Results show that trained groups perform significantly better on ToM tasks than untrained groups, whose performances remain stable between pre- and post-test. These results are encouraging as they suggest that, with a specific training, children with DS can improve their ToM skills.

Disfluency Characteristics Observed in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Preliminary Report

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura W. Plexico ◽  
Julie E. Cleary ◽  
Ashlynn McAlpine ◽  
Allison M. Plumb
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Children With Autism ◽  
Descriptive Study ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Young Children With Autism ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Developmental Stuttering

This descriptive study evaluates the speech disfluencies of 8 verbal children between 3 and 5 years of age with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Speech samples were collected for each child during standardized interactions. Percentage and types of disfluencies observed during speech samples are discussed. Although they did not have a clinical diagnosis of stuttering, all of the young children with ASD in this study produced disfluencies. In addition to stuttering-like disfluencies and other typical disfluencies, the children with ASD also produced atypical disfluencies, which usually are not observed in children with typically developing speech or developmental stuttering. (Yairi & Ambrose, 2005).

Disorder-specific alterations of tactile sensitivity in neurodevelopmental disorders

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason He ◽  
Ericka Wodka ◽  
Mark Tommerdahl ◽  
Richard Edden ◽  
Mark Mikkelsen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Symptoms ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Hyperactivity Disorder ◽  
The Core ◽  
Children With Asd ◽  
Tactile Detection ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Sensory Processes ◽  
Core Symptoms

Alterations of tactile processing have long been identified in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, the extent to which these alterations are disorder-specific, rather than disorder-general, and how they relate to the core symptoms of each disorder, remains unclear. We measured and compared tactile detection, discrimination and order judgment thresholds between a large sample of children with ASD, ADHD, ASD + ADHD combined and typically developing controls. The pattern of results suggested that while difficulties with tactile detection and order judgement were more common in children with ADHD, difficulties with tactile discrimination were more common in children with ASD. Strikingly, subsequent correlation analyses found that the disorder-specific alterations suggested by the group comparisons were also exclusively related to the core symptoms of each respective disorder. These results suggest that disorder-specific alterations of lower-level sensory processes exist and are specifically related to higher-level clinical symptoms of each disorder.

scholarly journals The Association between Difficulties with Speech Fluency and Language Skills in a National Age Cohort of Children with Down Syndrome

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 704
Author(s):  
Kari-Anne B. Næss ◽  
Egil Nygaard ◽  
Hilde Hofslundsengen ◽  
J. Scott Yaruss
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Typically Developing Children ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Exact Test ◽  
Children With Down Syndrome ◽  
Speech Fluency ◽  
Age Cohort ◽  
Student’S T

The present study (a) addressed difficulties in speech fluency in children with Down syndrome and typically developing children at a similar non-verbal level and (b) examined the association between difficulties with speech fluency and language skills in children with Down syndrome. Data from a cross-sectional parent survey that included questions about children’s difficulties with speech fluency, as well as clinical tests from a national age cohort of 43 six-year-olds with Down syndrome and 57 young typically developing children, were collected. Fisher’s exact test, Student’s t-test, linear regression, and density ellipse scatter plots were used for analysis. There was a significantly higher occurrence of parent-reported difficulties with speech fluency in the children with Down syndrome. Higher language scores were significantly associated with a lower degree of difficulties; this association was strongest for vocabulary and phonological skills. Although difficulties with speech fluency were not reported for all children with Down syndrome, a substantially higher occurrence of such difficulties was reported compared to that for typically developing children. The significant association between difficulties with speech fluency and the level of language functioning suggests that speech fluency and language skills should be taken into consideration when planning treatment for children with Down syndrome.

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