The role of theory of mind and learning of children with autism spectrum disorders in classroom settings

Abstract

Developing social competence is inherently difficult for learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These challenges related to social competence are often attributed to social cognition including Theory of Mind (ToM) and not only interfere with the ability to attain and maintain social relationships but can also hinder academic performance. Educators are responsible and accountable for improving the academic performance of children with ASD and because of this emphasis on academic instruction, interventions that address social cognition including ToM may be overlooked in classroom settings. Yet, the influence of ToM and social cognition on both social and academic performance makes it essential that educators begin to address these skills early and in classroom settings. The purpose of this paper is to review the ToM construct as well as the links between ToM and the academic skill development of learners with ASD. This article includes examples of evidence-based educational strategies (i.e., reading and mathematics) for students with ASD and explain how these strategies may also support ToM.

“Howling at the scrabble-board”: exploring classroom literature from an autistic viewpoint

“…Altered Theory of Mind has been suggested as an element in autism for many years (for example, Baron-Cohen, 1997;Charman and Baron-Cohen 1995;Karmiloff-Smith et al 1995;Frith 2003) and a difference in the development of ToM is considered a core challenge in autism (for example, Seidman andYirmiya 2018, in Whalon andCox 2020). Recent studies continue to explore ToM "impairment" in both children (for example, Lecheler et al 2020) and adults (for example, Rosenthal et al 2019), frequently positioning these studies within explorations of support for ToM (Holopainen et al 2019;Lecheler et al 2020) or exploring ToM as an element to examine or decode autism presentation (Livingston et al 2019).…”