The status of “theory of mind” deficit in autism spectrum disorder appears to have controversial perspectives and a common consensus seems to be complicated. Therefore, it is preferable to go through the different aspects of the theory of mind in relation to autism, in order to understand the difficulty about this status. Also relevant to explain but only in short words is the theory of mind and autism so as to follow the whole essay. So firstly, a theory of mind gives the possibility for humans to make sense of the social world, as well as to explain and to predict the whole set of communication and the different behaviors that other humans produce. (Baron-Cohen S., 1999) In other words, people with a deficit of the theory of mind have problems
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Impairments in restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviors, such as stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, insistence on sameness, fixated interests and hyper-hyporeactivity to sensory input are also essential to underline in autism (DSM-V, 2013).
Following the two definitions above children with autism are therefore more likely to suffer from a deficit of the theory of mind because their social communication skills and their social interaction skills are …show more content…
They have also problems to realize the function of the mind like thinking, dreaming and wishing and the appearance-reality distinction is also difficult to understand for them. They make no difference from the appearance of an object with the reality of it (Baron-Cohen, Tager-Fluserberg, and Cohen, 1993). Tests that require the idea of “seeing leads to knowing” are also a challenge for autistic children because they estimate those people who touch something to know more about it than those who actually see it. Normally developing children with three or four years are able to reply correctly at this test (Baron-Cohen and Goodhart, 1994; Leslie and Frith, 1988). Words like “think”, “know” and “imagine” aren’t obvious for them (Baron-Cohen, Ring, Moriarty, Shmitz, Costa, and Ell, 1994), as well as pretending a spontaneous play that should normally be acquired at the age of 18 months (Baron-Cohen, 1987; Wing and Gould, 1979; Lewis and Boucher, 1988). Complex causes of emotion like beliefs are also confusing for autistic children (Baron-Cohen, 1991; Baron-Cohen, Spitz, and Cross, 1993) and another important factor is that they are also unable to read from the eye-region of the face that means that when a person is looking at something like a banana, they can’t imagine the
Impairments in restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviors, such as stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, insistence on sameness, fixated interests and hyper-hyporeactivity to sensory input are also essential to underline in autism (DSM-V, 2013).
Following the two definitions above children with autism are therefore more likely to suffer from a deficit of the theory of mind because their social communication skills and their social interaction skills are …show more content…
They have also problems to realize the function of the mind like thinking, dreaming and wishing and the appearance-reality distinction is also difficult to understand for them. They make no difference from the appearance of an object with the reality of it (Baron-Cohen, Tager-Fluserberg, and Cohen, 1993). Tests that require the idea of “seeing leads to knowing” are also a challenge for autistic children because they estimate those people who touch something to know more about it than those who actually see it. Normally developing children with three or four years are able to reply correctly at this test (Baron-Cohen and Goodhart, 1994; Leslie and Frith, 1988). Words like “think”, “know” and “imagine” aren’t obvious for them (Baron-Cohen, Ring, Moriarty, Shmitz, Costa, and Ell, 1994), as well as pretending a spontaneous play that should normally be acquired at the age of 18 months (Baron-Cohen, 1987; Wing and Gould, 1979; Lewis and Boucher, 1988). Complex causes of emotion like beliefs are also confusing for autistic children (Baron-Cohen, 1991; Baron-Cohen, Spitz, and Cross, 1993) and another important factor is that they are also unable to read from the eye-region of the face that means that when a person is looking at something like a banana, they can’t imagine the