Theory of Mind in ASD, SLI, & Hearing Impairment Groups

Transcription

1 Theory of Mind in ASD, SLI, & Hearing Impairment Groups Megan Gresholdt Allison M. Haskill, Ph.D Augustana College

2 What is Theory of Mind (ToM)? ToM is the understanding that: other people experience thoughts and emotions that differ from one s own these thoughts and emotions may cause others to act differently than one might act

3 Purposes To determine: the efficacy and efficiency of 4 different types of ToM tasks for 5 groups of children patterns in ToM performance in 5 groups of children Identify potential clinical applications for different manifestations of deficits in ToM

4 Participants Group n M age (b, g) ASD 7 (5, 2) 8;7 SLI/LD 7 (5, 2) 8;5 Hearing Impairment 7 (3, 4) 8;1 Typically-developing preschoolers Typically-developing school-age children 10 (5, 5) 5;1 9 (4, 5) 8;4

5 Research Question 1 Does theory of mind performance vary as a function of group for the following: School-age children with ASD School-age children with hearing loss School-age children with SLI School-age (same-age) typicallydeveloping peers Preschool-age (younger), typicallydeveloping peers

6 Research Question 2 Does group performance vary as a function of theory of mind task? false belief task eye direction/facial expression task intentionality task narrative

7 Data Analysis Task Intentionality task (monkey) Eye direction Emotion interpretation False belief (quarter task) Narrative-based perspective-taking composite Data in the form of Correct/Incorrect (1 or 0) for 2 trials Correct/Incorrect % correct out of 10 Correct/Incorrect (verbal and/or nonverbal) % story grammar elements related to perspective-taking (internal response+consequence+reaction/total SG elements)

8 Eye Direction Detection Task Procedure Point to the cartoon face that is looking at you.

9 Interpretation of Emotions through Facial Expressions Task Point to the boy who looks like he is.

10 False Belief Task Procedure Quarter Hiding Game: Child seated opposite two adults Told that if she finds the quarter, she gets to keep it Nonverbal Portion Used to evaluate children with SLI and HI fairly Verbal Portion

11 Intentionality Task Procedure Mean Monkey Child presented with desired and undesired snack Told that Mean Monkey would always steal the snack that she said she wanted, and she would keep the remaining snack

12 Narrative While other ToM tasks examine an individual s receptive proficiency, a narrative task is an expressive measure. The analysis of this task examines how children talk about events that relate to others perspectives.

13 Eye Direction Detection Results

14 Interpretation of Emotions through Facial Expressions Results Percent of Children who Answered Correctly

15 False Belief Task Results Percent of Children who Answered Correctly

16 Intentionality Results Trial 1 Trial 2 Percent of Children who Answered Correctly ASD SLI HI TD 4-6

17 Narrative Task Results

18 Discussion Eye Direction Detection: ASD and preschool groups had difficulty with this task, relative to HI and SLI peers This measure may be age-related, eye contact and perspective-taking deficits may explain ASD group s performance Facial Expressions: ASD and HI groups had the most difficulty with this task Perspective-taking and semantic deficit explanations

19 Discussion False Belief ASD: performed better on the nonverbal aspect of the task SLI & HI groups: performed better on the verbal part of the task Intentionality required understanding of complex syntax Performance improved for all groups on second trial, and HI and SLI groups improved considerably

20 Discussion Narrative: Relative to TD 6-8 and ASD peers, SLI, HI, and TD 4-6 used proportionately fewer story grammar elements potentially related to ToM Flaws of study Small n size 2 HI participants tended to have outlying performance (may have more pervasive deficits beyond hearing; did not control for IQ)

21 Clinical Implications It may be important to consider associated skills of various ToM tasks in intervention False belief and intentionality tasks may require advanced understanding of syntax Focusing on objects vs people for the false belief task Performance on intentionality task improved from trial 1 to trial 2 for all groups, suggesting that such skills may improve with direct focus in intervention

22 Future Directions ToM profiles differed between disordered groups, but not always in expected ways, based on previous research Continue to understand how skills such as theory of mind may be similar or different between different groups of children with disorders Find new ways to address ToM directly in intervention contexts by considering requirements of descriptive/assessment tasks

23 Selected References Baron-Cohen, S. (1995). Mindblindess: An essay on autism and theory of mind. Cambridge: The MIT Press. Baron-Cohen, S. (1994). How to build a baby that can read minds: Cognitive mechanisms in mindreading. Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive, 13, Figueras-Costa, B., Harris, P. (2001). Theory of mind development in deaf children: A nonverbal test of false-belief understanding. Journal of deaf studies and deaf education, 6, Gano, K. E., Haskill, A., Petersen, R. A. (2005). Oral narrative and theory of mind skills in school-age children with autism spectrum disorder and specific language impairment. Leonard, L.B. (1998). Children with specific language impairments. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Miller, C. (2004). False belief and sentence completement performance in children with specific language impairment. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 39, Peterson, C. C., Slaughter, V. P. (2006). Telling the story of theory of mind: Deaf and hearing children s narratives and mental state understanding. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24, Peterson, C.C., Wellman, H. M., Liu, D. (2005). Steps in theory-of-mind development with deafness or autism. Child Development, 76, Peterson, C. C. (2005). Mind and body: Concepts of human cognition, physiology, and false belief in children with autism or typical development. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 35, Peterson, C. C. (2002). Drawing insight from pictures: The development of concepts of false drawing and false belief in children with deafness, normal hearing, and autism. Child Development, 73,

24 Acknowledgements Lindstrom Foundation/Anderson Faculty-Student Research Fellowship Program ASHA Student Volunteer Program Augustana College s NSSLHA Chapter