Basics of autism and theory of mind

Question 1

Wing and Gould (1979)

Answer 1

Triad of impairments for autism
Social impairment (appears unresponsive/absent and finds it hard to make friends)
Communicative impairment (Poor language development and finds it hard to initiate or sustain conversation)
Restrictive and repetitive behaviours (fascination with mundane objects and favours repetitive routine governed behaviours)
Skilled in some non-social domains

Question 2

Schaafsma et al (2015)

Answer 2

Argues that the definition on theory of mind implies it iss involved in many different processes - this makes ToM hrd to research and these processes need to be deconstructed and measured independently in order for a coherent understanding of what ToM is to be built up
Researchers often treat ToM as a monolithic process, refer to a single neural network as being ToM or conflate varieties of ToM which leads to inaccurate and over-generalised research

Question 3

Bernstein (2018)

Answer 3

We don’t know how ToM develops, changes or expresses itself beyond early childhood which clearly limits our ability to understand how ToM develops in autism

Question 4

Derksen et al (2018)

Answer 4

Conducted a meta-analysis on longitudinal studies of ToM in typically developing individuals in order to find our precursers and functions of ToM
Precursers = early attention skills, executive function development and use of language
Functions = Improve social relationships and a desire for pro-social behaviour