Theory of mind abilities in young siblings of children with autism

Abstract

Deficits in theory of mind (ToM), evident in most individuals with autism, have been suggested as a core deficit of autism. ToM difficulties in young siblings of children with autism (SIBS-A) compared to siblings of typically developing children (SIBS-TD) would place the former within the broad phenotype. We examined ToM's possible associations with measures of language, cognition, and daily living skills. Participants comprised 24 SIBS-A and 24 matched SIBSTD aged 4.6 years. They completed the false belief and the strange stories tasks. We also collected measures of verbal and cognitive ability and daily living skills. Non-significant differences emerged between the groups on both ToM tasks. Differences did emerge in within-group associations between ToM ability and receptive language. The conclusion is that SIBS-A show resilience in ToM abilities. Possibly, these deficits are not genetically transferred to siblings, at least as measured in laboratory-based ToM tasks.

Autistic Traits Below the Clinical Threshold: Re-examining the Broader Autism Phenotype in the 21st Century

“…Less support has been found for social cognitive deficits in young siblings of children with autism (e.g. Shaked et al 2006), although more research needs to be conducted on this experimental group examining social cognitive abilities.…”

“…• The face-to-face/still-face paradigm (Cassel et al 2007;Merin et al 2007) • (Shaked et al 2006) 6. Executive functioning • Enhanced working memory for non-social targets (Noland et al 2010) looking for autism-related characteristics in the relatives of probands, which have achieved mixed success.…”

“…Few studies have examined Theory of Mind ability in younger siblings of children with autism. Shaked et al (2006) tested siblings aged 54-57 months on two measures of Theory of Mind: the false belief task and the three easiest stories from the 'Strange Stories' task (Happé 1994). No differences were found between siblings of children with autism and a typically developing control group, but the measures used may not have been sufficiently sensitive to detect subtle Theory of Mind difficulties in siblings.…”

Étude des profils cognitifs chez les apparentés de personnes avec autisme : hypothèse d’un manque de flexibilité cognitive ?

“…Dans le domaine des FE, des difficultés en planification et flexibilité ont été observées chez les parents [12,27] ainsi que dans la fratrie [13,18]. De même en ToM, Baron-Cohen et Hammer [2] ont mis en évidence des déficits chez les parents (spécifiquement chez les pères) et Dorris et al [9] dans la fratrie, ces mêmes résultats n'étant cependant pas retrouvés par Shaked et al [23]. L'absence de différence dans cette dernière étude pourrait s'expliquer par un effet « plafond » comme dans l'étude de Ozonoff et al [18], de par l'utilisation de tests trop simples dans des populations non atteintes.…”

“…Ainsi, Dorris et al [9] mettent en évidence des déficits en ToM dans la fratrie de l'enfant atteint ; or ces résultats ne sont pas retrouvés par Shaked et al [23]. Ozonoff et al…”