Autism and the Brain's Theory of Mind

The video was more in-depth then the first one I watched.  It gave more information and really explained the logical aspect behind “Theory of Mind”.  From the start Uta Frith let the audience know Theory of mind is not a theory at all and it cannot be measure.  Children on the spectrum have difficulty describing their feeling which can frustrate people who might not have the proper knowledge about ASD children state of mind. According to Frith “self awareness requires ability to think about own mental states, ability to think about own feelings requires self awareness and self- awareness requires mentalizing ability”.  From my experience many of the children I work with do not have self awareness.  For example one of my students go to inclusion class for 2 hours in the morning and he is high function and has language as well.  He would have a tantrum while the other kids are looking at him.  I try to remind him we are in big kid’s classroom and they are not crying and they use their words to ask for help.   This prove to me that he is not aware that the other children are not crying and they are looking at him when he acts a certain way.  I am constantly presenting him with visual cues to help gather his though and ask for help appropriately. Many of kids learn all they have to do is cry then they will get someone to attend to their need.  I am trying to teach him he has words he needs to use them to communicate his needs.  I reinforce good behaviors and ignore the bad one. 

Frith revisited the theory of Sally and Anne. Sally put the marble in her basket and then went to the bathroom.  Anne took the opportunity to move the marble in the box while Sally was gone.  Since she left it in the basket she did not have the mental ability to look elsewhere. She only has her believe and does not recognize mental states in others.  A typical child would have look in the box even though he or she did not put in there.  Children on the spectrum are not able to think outside the box.  This skill has to be thought to the child over a period of time for her to begin understanding the concept. 

When assessing children with ASD the assessor must keep in mind the child state of mind. Many times a child might reply I don’t know when ask a question is because he is not able to think about his emotional feeling.  For example I had a kid last week who was crying and bolting from the classroom for most of the day. He told me he was sad. I asked why he was sad and he replied I do not know.  He honesty did not know because he may had so many emotion at once and he was not able to pinpoint the real reason he was sad.  I was playing the guessing game with my colleague and we had a few theories why he was crying. He started a new medication about a month ago and he looked extremely tired which mean he might not had enough sleep the night before.  Since he was not able to give us a reason we could not know for sure what cause his sadness.  If mom had sent us a note that day we would not have to play the guessing game and we could have approach his day differently. ASD children have difficulty communicate their feeling to others.  Teachers are constantly working on that skill because we need them to have a voice and tell others what they might be feeling.