A psychological approach to understanding the social and language impairments in autism

Tager–Flusberg, Helen

doi:10.1080/09540269974203

Cited by 165 publications

(111 citation statements)

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“…Another possibility is based on extensive prior research indicating that AD children often have trouble going beyond surface actions to infer another person's intentions (Baron-Cohen, 1995;BaronCohen, Tager-Flusberg, & Cohen, 1993;Bloom, 2000;Hobson, 1993;Kasari, Mundy, & Sigman, 1990;Klin & Volkmar, 1993;Leekham et al, 2000;Loveland & Landry, 1986;Tager-Flusberg, 1999Warreyn et al, 2005; but see Aldridge et al 2000;Carpenter et al, 2001;Nadel, 2004). On this view, children in the AD group may not have moved beyond a reliance on attentional, perceptual cues to an understanding of intentions in an effort to complete the task.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been argued that AD children have an impaired ability to read intentions (Baron-Cohen, 1995;Bloom, 2000;Charman, 2000;Charman et al, 1998;Griffin, 2002;Peterson, 2005;Rogers & Pennington, 1991;Ruffman, 2000, Ruffman et al, 2001Tager-Flusberg, 1999Tomasello, 1999). However, these studies tested children's theory of mind, the understanding that others may have different thoughts, feelings, and beliefs from their own (Wellman, 1990).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Children With Autism Illuminate the Role of Social Intention in Word Learning

et al. 2007

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To what extent do children with autism (AD) versus typically developing children (TD) rely on attentional and intentional cues to learn words? Four experiments compared 17 AD children (M age 5 5.08 years) with 17 language-and 17 mental-age-matched TD children (M ages 5 2.57 and 3.12 years, respectively) on nonverbal enactment and word-learning tasks. Results revealed variability in all groups, but particularly within the AD group. Performance on intention tasks was the most powerful predictor of vocabulary in the AD group but not in the TD groups. These findings suggest that word learning cannot be explained exclusively by either attentional or intentional processes, and they provide evidence of a special role for intentional understanding in the vocabulary development of AD children.Children acquire vocabulary at an impressive pace (Carey, 1978), and they acquire it primarily in the context of social interaction with other human beings (Hoff, 2003;Hoff & Tian, 2005;Opie, Steele, & Ward, 2004;Rowe, 2004;Tomasello, 1999; but see Chen & Peng, 1995). Hotly debated, however, is the exact function that social interaction plays for children learning to map words onto referents. Does social interaction offer perceptual cues that direct attention to word referents? Or does it provide a gateway to a speaker's communicative intent, thus focusing listeners on the object or action that the speaker had in mind? Might there be a developmental progression with children first attending to the perceptual, attentional elements of social interaction and only later to the intentional cues to word reference? It has been difficult to distinguish empirically among these accounts. A comparison of the way typically developing (TD) and autistic (AD) children learn words offers a window onto the role that social information plays in word learning. It has been argued that AD children pay less attention to social intentional cues than do TD children (Baron-Cohen, 1995). If true, and AD children nonetheless learn words in a manner similar to TD children, then understanding social intent might not be necessary for word learning. Furthermore, as AD children are somewhat heterogenous in their ability to access intentional cues, studying them offers a second way to examine the relative import of attentional and intentional social cues in vocabulary acquisition.There are a plethora of theories that have been developed to account for patterns of early word learning. For example, there is the view that children's word learning is guided by a set of constraints that limit the number of hypotheses children need to make for what a word might mean (Booth, Waxman, & Huang, 2005;Cimpian & Markman, 2005;Merriman & Evey, 2005). For the present purposes, however, we will consider only three types of theories: attentional, intentional, and hybrid. Attentional theories hold that social exchanges replete with movement, object handling, and gestures highlight certain objects and actions in the environment over others. Hearing a word in the presence of an inter...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children With Autism Illuminate the Role of Social Intention in Word Learning

et al. 2007

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“…The ability to impute false beliefs to oneself and others, which is normally acquired at around age 4, is considered a particularly important development in theory of mind in that it marks the emergence of a representational concept of mind, whereby children implicitly understand that mental states are subjective representations of the world that are independent of and not necessarily congruent with reality (Astington & Gopnik, 1991;Perner, 1991;Wellman, 1990). From the vantage point of the theory of mind hypothesis, an impaired ability to represent mental states, and the limited awareness of oneself and other people that this implies, provides a compelling explanation for the failures in communication and reciprocal social interaction that characterize autism (Baron-Cohen, 1988;Happé, 1994;Tager-Flusberg, 1999).Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Robert M. Joseph, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine, 715 Albany Street, L-814, Boston, MA 02118. E-mail: rmjoseph@bu.edu.. …”

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The relationship of theory of mind and executive functions to symptom type and severity in children with autism

Joseph

Tager–Flusberg

2004

Develop. Psychopathol.

217

163

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Although neurocognitive impairments in theory of mind and in executive functions have both been hypothesized to play a causal role in autism, there has been little research investigating the explanatory power of these impairments with regard to autistic symptomatology. The present study examined the degree to which individual differences in theory of mind and executive functions could explain variations in the severity of autism symptoms. Participants included 31 verbal, school-aged children with autism who were administered a battery of tests assessing the understanding of mental states (knowledge and false belief ) and executive control skills (working memory, combined working memory and inhibitory control, and planning) and who were behaviorally evaluated for autism severity in the three core symptom domains. Whereas theory of mind and executive control abilities explained the significant variance beyond that accounted for by language level in communication symptoms, neither explained the significant variance in reciprocal social interaction or repetitive behaviors symptoms. These findings are discussed in terms of a proposed distinction between higher level, cognitive-linguistic aspects of theory of mind and related executive control skills, and more fundamental social-perceptual processes involved in the apprehension of mental state information conveyed through eyes, faces, and voices, which may be more closely linked to autistic deficits in social reciprocity.Impairments in theory of mind and in executive functions have both been hypothesized to underlie the core, defining symptoms of autism. The theory of mind hypothesis (Baron-Cohen, Tager-Flusberg, & Cohen, 2000) posits that autism involves an impairment in the ability to conceive of mental states and to use mental state concepts to interpret and predict one's own and other people's behavior. Although efforts to specify the nature of the "mentalizing" impairment in autism have increasingly taken a developmental rather than a static, all or nothing approach (Tager-Flusberg, 2001), the bulk of the research on theory of mind in autism has nonetheless focused on the attainment of one key social-cognitive milestone, false belief understanding, in which individuals with autism have been found to be significantly impaired (Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith, 1985; also see Baron-Cohen, 2000, for a review). The ability to impute false beliefs to oneself and others, which is normally acquired at around age 4, is considered a particularly important development in theory of mind in that it marks the emergence of a representational concept of mind, whereby children implicitly understand that mental states are subjective representations of the world that are independent of and not necessarily congruent with reality (Astington & Gopnik, 1991;Perner, 1991;Wellman, 1990). From the vantage point of the theory of mind hypothesis, an impaired ability to represent mental states, and the limited awareness of oneself and other people that this implies, provides a compellin...

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“…Muitas crianças com PEA envolvem-se em "ecolalia" isto é, a imitação retardada ou imediata da linguagem que ouviram dos parceiros de conversação, ou provenientes dos media tais como publicidade ou programas televisivos (EIGSTI et al, 2011;TAGER-FLUSBERG, 1999). Embora a ecolalia possa não facilitar o desenvolvimento gramatical, parece ter uma função comunicativa parcial (EIGSTI et al, 2011).…”

Section: Linguagem Na Peaunclassified

Características e Especificidades da Comunicação Social na Perturbação do Espectro do Autismo

Reis

Pereira

Almeida

2016

Rev. bras. educ. espec.

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RESUMO: este artigo descreve e problematiza as características da Comunicação Social na Perturbação do Espetro do Autismo (PEA), tendo por base os critérios de diagnóstico do Manual de Diagnóstico das Perturbações Mentais, DSM 5. Destaca, entre outros aspetos, a fusão da interação social com a comunicação relevando a sua importância para a definição do diagnóstico e da intervenção em crianças com PEA. Confronta ainda as diferentes perspectivas que sustentam argumentos e críticas à classificação proposta pelo DSM-5. Analisa a especificidade da linguagem, do discurso, da pragmática, da prosódia da sintaxe, da morfologia e da semântica na criança com PEA, bem como as suas implicações na adequação e desenvolvimento das suas competências comunicativas. A identificação destas competências reforça a importância de uma intervenção o mais precoce possível, realizada nos contextos naturais, da criança e da sua família, que objetive a potencialização de níveis de envolvimento e participação da criança, promotores de oportunidades de aprendizagem e de desenvolvimento das suas competências comunicativas e sociais. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Educação Especial. Perturbação do Espectro do Autismo. Comunicação Social.ABSTRACT: This article describes and discusses the characteristics of Social Communication in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) based on the diagnostic criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM 5. It highlights, among others, the merger of social interaction and communication and its importance for diagnosis and intervention of children with ASD. It also confronts the different perspectives that underpin arguments and criticisms to the classification proposed by DSM-5. It analyzes the specificity of language, discourse, pragmatics, syntax prosody, morphology and semantics in children with ASD as well as their implications for adaptation and development of their communicative skills. Identifying these skills reinforces the importance of the earliest intervention possible, conducted in the child and family's natural contexts aiming to enhance involvement levels and participation of the child, promoters of learning opportunities and development of their communicative and social skills.

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A psychological approach to understanding the social and language impairments in autism

Cited by 165 publications

References 53 publications

Children With Autism Illuminate the Role of Social Intention in Word Learning

Children With Autism Illuminate the Role of Social Intention in Word Learning

The relationship of theory of mind and executive functions to symptom type and severity in children with autism

Características e Especificidades da Comunicação Social na Perturbação do Espectro do Autismo

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