“I love the cute caterpillar!” autistic children's production of internal state language across contexts and relations to Joint Attention and theory of mind

Joint Attention in Preschool Children: Is it a Meaningful Measure?

“…As has been recently documented in many empirical studies in the last decade, autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder which is characterized by an extreme attenuation of the typical maturation of JA skills in the preschool period [38][39][40]. This long-standing evidence supports the notion that JA is a pivotal skill and major milestone of social-cognitive development that is affected by attentional processes inherent to the child [39][40][41]. These social attention processes along with social attention coordination are vital to successful interactions and social competence in both infants and young children.…”

Declarative joint attention as a foundation of theory of mind.

“…They are not inconsistent with recent longitudinal findings by Brooks and Meltzoff (2015), who did not find a link between gaze following at 10.5 months and theory of mind at 4.5 years, because gaze following does not specifically tap declarative communicative competence. The present study adds to findings in both typical and atypical samples indicating the specific importance of declarative pointing as a precursor of theory of mind development (Camaioni et al, 2004; Kristen et al, 2011; Kristen, Vuori, & Sodian, 2015). Note, however, that predictive significance is not limited to point production tasks.…”

Empirical failures of the claim that autistic people lack a theory of mind.

“…social attention, cooperation, anticipation, persuasion, deception, and avoidance ( N = 402 nonautistic adolescents, Hünefeldt, Laghi, Ortu, & Belardinelli, 2013; N = 77 autistic children, Angus, de Rosnay, Lunenburg, Meerum Terwogt, & Begeer, 2015; see similar results with smaller samples of autistic children in Burnside et al, 2017; Chin & Bernard-Opitz, 2000; Kristen, Vuori, & Sodian, 2015; Peterson, Slaughter, & Wellman, 2018; and smaller samples of nonautistic children in Brooks & Meltzoff, 2015; Ding, Wellman, Wang, Fu, & Lee, 2015);…”

“…But numerous studies document failures of prediction. For example, performance on theory-ofmind tasks fails to significantly predict • autistic traits in either autistic or nonautistic participants, as measured by clinicians' observation, self-report, or informant-report (N ϭ 1513 nonautistic adults, Kunihira, Senju, Dairoku, Wakabayashi, & Hasegawa, 2006 Clemmensen et al, 2016;Dziobek et al, 2006;Murray et al, 2017;Ozonoff & McEvoy, 1994) • empathy and emotional understanding (N ϭ 484 nonautistic adults, Olderbak et al, 2015 Lawrence et al, 2004; see similar results with smaller samples in Carroll & Chiew, 2006;Campbell et al, 2011;Muller et al, 2010;Peterson, 2014) • Bennett et al, 2013;Fombonne, Siddons, Achard, Frith, & Happé, 1994;Frith et al, 1994 6 ;Hughes, Soares-Boucaud, Hochmann, & Frith, 1997;Joseph & Tager-Flusberg, 2004;Prior et al, 1990;Shaked et al, 2006;Sparrevohn & Howie, 1995; and smaller samples of nonautistic children and adults in Carroll & Chiew, 2006;Tso, Grove, & Taylor, 2010;Watson, Nixon, Wilson, & Capage, 1999;Clegg, Hollis, Mawhood, & Rutter, 2005) • social attention, cooperation, anticipation, persuasion, deception, and avoidance (N ϭ 402 nonautistic adolescents, Hünefeldt, Laghi, Ortu, & Belardinelli, 2013; N ϭ 77 autistic children, Angus, de Rosnay, Lunenburg, Meerum Terwogt, & Begeer, 2015; see similar results with smaller samples of autistic children in Burnside et al, 2017;Chin & Bernard-Opitz, 2000;Kristen, Vuori, & Sodian, 2015;Peterson, Slaughter, & Wellman, 2018; and smaller samples...…”