Autism and Theory of Mind

This was another interesting video on the theory of mind and how it affects children with autism.  Children with autism have difficulties in cognitive, behavioral and social areas and the social areas are becoming more and more seen with children.  Social reciprocity is an important part for children to learn because it has such a big impact on peoples’ lives and understandings of the environments around them.  Uta Frith does point out that the theory of mind is not a real theory because of difficulty in investigating the concept.  There are many concepts that might be hard to teach a child with autism when relating to social communication, but the video points out that there are many concepts that have the ability to be taught to children.

It was interesting that she went over the differences by developmental milestones between children with autism and typically developing peers and how they may be different in the development of mental states and social behavior.  After watching the video, I was able to see the observable aspects of the mental states that children with autism are usually lacking and I can see measuring and observing it as a behavior as well.  She brought up many good and interesting points that made me think about the theory of mind in different ways.  The images of the brain in children with autism and typically developing brains were quite interesting in the differences in relation to the mental states. 

A social interaction among children with autism is a much needed area to function in the environment and more research needs to be done on how we might need to help these children.  I think, along with assessments also need to look at what the child does and how they may interpret social cues and integrate that into their services and plans through the schools.  The theory of mind, I think, should be explained and made known within the public to help these children succeed.