Same or different? Theory of mind among children with and without disabilities

Abstract

Assessing theory of mind (ToM) with reliable and valid measures is important, as ToM plays a significant role in children’s social and cognitive functioning. With this in mind, a thorough analysis of the Theory of Mind scale and the Faux Pas Recognition Test was conducted. Over 750 school-age (M age = 7.7) children with disabilities (mild intellectual disability, hearing impairment) and without disabilities took part in our study. The psychometric properties of measures in these groups of children were checked, using confirmatory item factor analysis, reliability, and validity analyses. Thanks to groups’ invariance it was possible to compare mean results of children in the groups. Both measures showed well-fitted models with acceptable goodness of fit as well as scalar and strict invariance. An IRT analysis showed significant differences in the difficulty of the tasks in all groups, but the same order of passing tasks in comparison to other studies, conducted in Western countries, has been observed. Our results showed that the tasks were the easiest for children without disabilities, and most difficult for children with mild intellectual disability. We obtained significant and positive correlations between ToM and social skills and language abilities. The findings are discussed in relation to results from other studies in the field.

Cognitive processes predicting advanced theory of mind in the broader autism phenotype

“…ToM was assessed using an adult version of The faux pas test adapted from Baron-Cohen et al [1999] and Stone et al [1998]. The task was selected due to its psychometric properties [Faísca et al, 2016;Fernández-Modamio et al, 2018;Hayward & Homer, 2017;Smogorzewska, Szumski, & Grygiel, 2018;Söderstrand & Almkvist, 2012;Zalla et al, 2009]. Although the psychometric properties of the faux pas test have not been formally assessed in adolescents, it has been shown to be able to discriminate between children and adults with HFA from controls [Baron-Cohen et al, 1999;Zalla et al, 2009].…”

Theory of mind development in school environment: A case of children with mild intellectual disability learning in inclusive and special education classrooms

“…Children's social skills were assessed by their teachers using the Taxonomy of Problematic Social Situations (ToPSS; Dodge, McClaskey, & Feldman, ) in a Polish translation which has been adapted into Polish and used in other studies (Smogorzewska & Szumski, ; Smogorzewska et al, ; Smogorzewska et al, ; Szumski, Smogorzewska, Grygiel, & Orlando, in press). The ToPSS assesses how problematic a given social situation is for a child.…”

“…The scale has been used in studies of children without disabilities, as well as those with disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disabilities and hearing impairment (Peterson et al, 2005(Peterson et al, , 2012Smogorzewska, Szumski, & Grygiel, 2019;Wellman & Liu, 2004). The scale was adapted into Polish and used in other studies (Smogorzewska, Szumski, & Grygiel, 2018). Children received one point for each correctly solved task, so children could obtain between 0 and 6 points.…”

Facts and Anomalies to Keep in Perspective When Designing an Artificial Intelligence

“…Examination of their brain activity also led to the conclusion that there is a difference between cognition and language acquisition [69]. Intellectually disabled children perform worse than children without disabilities at theory-of-mind (ToM) tasks (understanding mental states of self and others) [102]. Concepts of fluid intelligence, crystallized intelligence and Piaget's observations of four stages of cognitive development in children [103] also provide clues into the constitution of intelligence.…”