Theory of Mind (ToM)
NOTE: Excerpts from the books listed in References. (1% indicates location in the eReader version of the book, instead of page numbers).
Cariello, C. (2015) 57% Literal boys like Jack, will start looking around wildly for giraffes when their mother announces that the box store parking lot is a zoo!
21% As a literally thinker… he has trouble with cognitive flexibility and ‘theory of mind’. An aspect of social cognition, ‘theory of mind’ is the ability to understand that others have beliefs, opinions, and feelings different than your own. Jack however, thinks everyone sees and feels and likes the same things he does.
< My Thoughts > “…everyone sees and feels and likes the same things he does.”
Thinking that another’s life duplicates yours in every way, with the same wants and needs. Thinking they are experiencing the same feelings, perceptions, and environmental setting as you are experiencing.
Even neuro-typical’s with undeveloped or underdeveloped ‘Theory of Mind’ will believe that others think, understand, and perceive the world ‘exactly’ as they do. They do not realize that different persons have different thoughts, desires, beliefs, and attitudes by which they make sense of the world they live in.
Cariello, C. (2015) 23% How do you increase a person’s ‘theory of mind’ and help them understand that others think and feel differently?
With the help of our psychologist, we…created a strategy to increase his (Jack’s) ability in each of the identified areas:
- Self-regulation
- Communication
- Cognitive ability
< My Thoughts > “…skills he needed…”
Neurotypical persons naturally develop the needed ‘survival’ skills to interpret, predict, intuit, and imagine what others in their world are thinking. Persons with autism are mostly ‘literal’ thinkers like Jack. They are so focused on ‘their’ world that there is no room for anyone or anything else.
While neurotypicals sometimes find it difficult to see and/or accept another’s point of view; persons with autism often find it impossible. Besides, what purpose would it serve them? They see no need, because they are so intensely certain that their way is the true one.
Staff Writer (2008) states, “In his 1995 book, Mindblindness: An Essay on Autism and Theory of Mind," Simon Baron-Cohen explored what has become one of the central theoretical concepts of autism: theory of mind. Baron-Cohen proposed that children with autism suffer from ‘mindblindness’.
Already hampered by the inability to achieve ‘joint attention’ with others, they become unable to build on that fundamental step to ‘intuit’ what others are thinking, perceiving, intending, or believing. They become “blind” to others’ mental states.
Note: For further information on ‘cognition’, read online in my Free ASD Book: Know Autism, Know Your Child with < My Thoughts > by Sara Luker. Found on website MENU. Please see under UNIT 3 What Is Most Concerning? UNIT 3, CHAPTER 3 Cognition & Temperament/Personality
APPENDIX B - Theory of Mind.
Staff Writer (2008) says that individuals with ASDs lack this ‘thinking ability’ to a staggering degree. They cannot read social cues; including facial expressions, body language, or tone of voice. Even higher functioning individuals who are trying to pay attention, who want to connect, constantly commit social mistakes, alienating their peers. They have a hard time noticing the social world and interpreting it.
Early problems with gaze and joint attention, it is believed, come to impact their ‘theory of mind’. ‘Theory of mind’ simply refers to the understanding that other people have their own thoughts, perceptions, and intentions separate from one’s own. It is part of seeing others as separate beings with their own agendas. To accommodate others, to predict their future behavior, to manipulate or please them, you must have this inbuilt capacity to guess something about who they are and what they might do or desire. Individuals with ASDs lack this ability to a staggering degree.
< My Thoughts > “…other people…”
Who are these ‘other’ people? “…’blind’ to others’ mental states… to a staggering degree…” Our Sonny only seems to need ‘others’ when he can’t get to something, needs you to fix his TV, or wants to go somewhere. He has no indication that you may have any priorities at all. You are there to ‘serve’ him. Much like an infant’s early life is self-focused, so that you exist only when needed.
We are tolerated only when it serves Sonny’s purpose. Thus, asking him to stock blocks, work a puzzle, or turn the pages in a book, often leaves him confused; because it serves him no purpose.
As a mother, I know this; but, as a teacher working with a student in the classroom, I sometimes forget that. As a Special Education teacher, I try to follow the curriculum, teach lessons, and engage special needs students in instruction.
My students, however, are their primarily because they have been placed there against their will. Their day has been severely interrupted by delivering them to school. True, that on occasions, a ‘teachable moment’ occurs; fleeting as it may be. But basically, I am annoyingly intruding into their world, asking for behavior which serves no motivation to them.
Davide-Rivera, J. (2013) 92% It took 38 years for me to be diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS), as a form of high functioning autism – 38 years of confusing experiences.
53% One of the first things that I learned about my Asperger’s diagnosis is that there are three core deficits that accompany this condition – the lack of theory of mind, executive dysfunction, and weak central coherence. There are also a host of other issues like sensory processing difficulties – being hyper or hypo sensitive to outside stimuli like to heat, cold, or pain.
< My Thoughts > “…the lack of theory of mind …”
Lack of ‘theory of mind (ToM),’ is also thinking that everyone is having the same ‘sensory experience’ that you are. Believing that everyone’s’ world mirrors yours exactly.
Cariello, C. & Capell, J. (2015) 11% I’ve often thought that Jack does not appear to experience a full range of emotions in the same way you or I might. His spectrum disorder seems to prohibit his emotional pendulum from swinging widely across a landscape of feelings that often include shame and humility and empathy and amusement. But after the initial shock of having broken his dad’s mug… the pendulum swung a little wider. He cycled a new set of emotions: sorrow, regret, and (to some degree) grief.
< My Thoughts > “…the pendulum swung a little wider.”
Children with autism may fail formal ‘theory of mind’ tests, but at times, show real-time understanding of another’s perspective. Especially, when the person with ASD is intimately involved. They get a glimpse of ‘cause & effect’. Momentarily, they may understand that the one thing that happened, has caused another thing to happen. Jack intuited that because he had broken his father’s favorite morning coffee mug, his dad couldn’t start his day. Interruption of ‘routine’ is devastating to those with ASD. Jack had interrupted his father’s routine. Thus, Jack expected his father to be devastated, because he would have been.
Bogdashina, O. (2011) 45% …believes that having a new experience gives perception a new and different emphasis. Like the same handful of sand that is formed into different patterns. She says that we learn how to restructure experiences in order to reflect what is needed from us in the environment. New interpretations give us many different perspectives of reality compared to the ‘bubble’ formed around us so we perceive only the reflection of our own world view; such as autistic individuals tend to do.
References:
Baron-Cohen, S. (1995). Mindblindness: An essay on autism and theory of mind. Cambridge, MA; London: The MIT Press.
Bogdashina, O.( 2011). Autism and the Edges of the Known World: Sensitivities, Language & Constructed Reality; eBook.
Cariello, C.(2015). What Color is Monday? How Autism Changed One Family for the Better; eBooks.
Cariello, C. & Capell, J. (2015). Someone I’m With Has Autism; eBook.
Davide-Rivera, J. (2013) Twirling Naked in the Streets & No One Noticed; Growing Up with Autism; eBook.
Staff Writer (2008). Social Issues; Kennedy Krieger Institute. Retrieved online from:
https://www.kennedykrieger.org › stories › social_issues
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