Atypical Development

Question 1

why is looking at Atypical development important?

Answer 1

• improves understanding of how difficulties in early life impact an individual
• find methods that improve life

Question 2

what is the theory of mind and demonstrate

Answer 2

ability to understand others and our own mental states

Question 3

Baron-Cohen et al (1986)

Sally-Anne Test - what does this mean for ToM?

Answer 3

• only 20% of autistic children passed
• 90% of syndrome passed

ToM is impaired in autism

Question 4

Leslie (1987) - Meta-representations and ToM

Answer 4

autistic children fail to produce multiple representations during pretend play.
e.g., ‘pretend this banana is a phone
e.g., sally thinks the ball is in the basket
= child fails to put real object on hold = failed meta-representation

Question 5

1. who talks about false belief - what test
2. Meta-representation & pretend play
3. Joint Attention - what studies are these

Answer 5

1. Baron-Cohen et al 1985: salle-Anne Test
2. Leslie
3. Curcio, 1978 & Leeam et al, 2000

Question 6

what is joint attention

Answer 6

when one individual purposefully coordinates his or her attention with another person’s

Question 7

what is different between normal individuals and people with autism - joint attention

Answer 7

it is impaired - doesn’t engage that a persons attention is else were

Question 8

criticism of autistic research on ToM

Answer 8

developmental trajectory - doesn’t show the development of autism over a long period of time - at different ages.

Question 9

what is an ‘autistic person’?

Answer 9

Autism spectrum Disease (DSM V, 2013)

- Neurodiversity movement: ASD not disease/illness. IDENTITY

Question 10

how is autism characterised?

Answer 10

on average X developmental condition score lower on Y

Question 11

how is autism identified?

Answer 11

1. deficit in social-emotional reciprocity
2. deficit in non-verbal communicative behaviours
3. deficit in developing, maintaining and understanding relationships
4. restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities

Question 12

MMR vaccine does not cause autism

Question 13

what are the changes in autism as an individual develops?

Answer 13

1. communication
2. social & repetitive behaviour

= difficult to predict

Question 14

stability of diagnosis - Helles, 2015

Answer 14

24-38% no longer meet criteria DSM V of autism at age 30

- because severity changes over time

Question 15

the problem of heterogeneity & and differences in autism (Loth et al - 2022)

Answer 15

effects sizes between eye contact, emotion regulation and communication are small compared to differences in ToM.
example: emotional control has a effect size of 0.1 where as ToM is 1.05

Question 16

how is effect size of different heterogeneity and autistic traits compared in the between autistic individuals

Answer 16

those components (emotional regulation, eye contact and communication) = only around 4% of autistic people have those problem due to low effect size

Question 17

how prominent is ToM in autism? (effect size)

Answer 17

1.05 effect size - very prominent in autism

= ToM is more universal in autism rather than emotion regulation, communication and eye contact

Question 18

degree of deficits in autism = outcome:

Answer 18

not all autistic individuals will have similar deficits however, ToM will most likely be more prominent in the majority of autism

Question 19

critcism for stability of diagnosis

Answer 19

for the majority of autistic individual, they have little to no impairment

Question 20

levy and taylor - 2009

Answer 20

50-60% of autistic individual leave education without qualification
50-60% do not live independently
only 5-10% have stable partners
high levels of MH problems

Question 21

main psychological theories of autism

Answer 21

1. ToM –> explains social and communication impairments
2. Executive function –> explains repetitive behaviours
3. Weak central coherence –> explains sensory issues
4. Extreme male brain –> explains a combination all ideas mentioned above

Question 22

executive function –>

Answer 22

responsible for the flexibility of thought and behaviour + related to skills like planning, selecting relevant information, working memory, inhibiting behaviour

• resemblance with front lobe damaged patients (Ozonoff et al, 1991) as EF occurs mainly in prefrontal cortex

theory explains repetitive and sensory behaviours well BUT does not account for communication difficulties –> does link to other developmental conditions like dyslexia, ADHD and DS
= doesn’t only explain autism

Question 23

weak central coherence –>

Answer 23

“the tendency of the cognitive system to integrate incoming information into meaning representations” - Frith, 1989 - info into context

good for account for sensory issues that outline the DSMV however this theory explains sensory issues well is does not explain social difficulties and repetitive behaviours to some extent only

Question 24

extreme male brain –>

Answer 24

autism is a form of extreme male brain - characterised but high systemising ability and low empathy - Baron Cohen, 2002

asperger, 1944 = already suggested that autism is am extreme form of “maleness”

attempts to explain both social and non-social impairment

Question 25

criticsm for extreme for male brain

Answer 25

definitions are weak and vaget.
e.g., Baron Cohen states men better at chess and football as they are deterministic and finite

criticism - chess and football is neither

Question 26

culture and executive function development

Answer 26

executive function development = highly influenced by culture
e.g. south koreans highly encouraged self control in classroom & home and 3 yr olds often given formal lessons (Chow & Tseng, 2002)
= lower executive function impairment

Question 27

culture and weak central coherence

Answer 27

culture differences at dinner = US more likely to speak about individual effort of the day whilst Japanese individual are more likely to speak about group occurrences

Question 28

criticism of methods for atypical development

Answer 28

snapshot methodology where not much information or development over time
high causality through genetics rather than culture for non-social (executive function and weak central coherence impairments)