The claim that autistic individuals lack Theory of Mind (ToM)—the ability to understand that others have thoughts, emotions, and...

Theory of Mind (ToM) is a critical aspect of social cognition and undergoes significant developmental changes from infancy to adulthood. This development follows a trajectory marked by key milestones, with notable differences between autistic and non-autistic individuals. Infancy and Early Childhood ToM development begins in infancy, where social interaction plays a vital role. Infants depend on caregivers to regulate affective states, which in turn helps in the gradual acqui

Henry Wellman (2020) explores the development of "theory of mind"—our ability to understand and predict others' mental states. He argues...

Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to the ability to attribute mental states—such as beliefs, intentions, and emotions—to oneself and others, enabling social understanding and interaction (Green et al. 2015; Poletti et al. 2012). It consists of two primary components: cognitive ToM (reasoning about thoughts and beliefs) and affective ToM (reasoning about emotions), which interact but function separately (Shamay-Tsoory 2011; Sprung et al. 2022). Conceptual and Terminological Challeng

Theory of mind (ToM), or mentalising, is a fundamental aspect of human cognition. It is defined as the ability to attribute mental states—

After examining sensory perception in autism in the first book , the newly released second instalment focuses on communication and language in autism. Communication is a two-way process, and it takes two people to mess up a conversation. Not all the problems are caused by autistic children. Non-autistic people have a lot to learn about the ways autistic individuals use verbal and non-verbal language to communicate. Autistic children do not lack the desire to talk to others bu

Overlapping symptoms and differences Psychosis Psychosis is not a diagnosis in and of itself but rather a cluster of symptoms present in...

Similarities and differences in conceptualisation, diagnosis and research Similarities: ASD and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative conditions that manifest themselves at different stages of life (two opposite ends of life span, i.e., childhood and old age) (Nadeem et al. 2021; Khan et al. 2016; Rhodus et al. 2020). According to the present trend, they both can be described as neurodivergent conditions. In fact, include both ASD and dementia

Overlaps in biological pathways, clinical features and behavioural expression Although Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and ASD are etiologically distinct conditions , there is growing evidence of significant overlaps in biological and neurological features, and behavioural expression of ASD and AD (and related dementias). Studies also suggest that there are common neurological pathways in both ASD and dementia, particularly involving the immune system and synaptic signaling. A gene

- Hello, where are you? - I am at home. - At home? Where? - I have one home, in England. Why? What’s happened? - Why did you leave without saying ‘goodbye’? It was great when you and your daughter came to see me. We visited friends and had fun. I was preparing your farewell party, but you left. You could have said goodbye… Thus began my conversation with my childhood friend (B.). We have be

The way we perceive the world affects the way we store and use information. The conscious mind is not the only way of receiving information. Subconsciously, we are perceiving all the time – whether we are aware of it or not, subconscious processes are there. For example, at an early stage of visual processing there is a ‘low-level map-like representation’ which most are not consciously aware of (Rensink 2000). It is only at higher levels of processing, where attention plays a

According to some researchers (e.g., Ramachandran 1995), it is mirror neurons that allow us to "read" and understand another's intentions, and thus to develop a sophisticated "theory of other minds"; without these neurons, the child can no longer understand other people’s intentions, emotions and behaviours, and this is the case in autism. It is true that autistic people find it hard to perceive the mental states of others and it has been suggested that the central feature of

But do they? Giacomo Rizzollati and colleagues (1992) conducted experiments on monkeys, recording signals from parts of the frontal lobes which are concerned with motor commands. The researcher found that there are cells that fire not only when the monkey performs certain specific movements but also when the monkey watches another monkey performing the same action. ‘Monkey-see monkey-do neurons’ Rizzollati terms these neurons mirror neurons (‘monkey-see monkey-do neurons’). T

Can’t start – can’t stop Another problem autistic individuals experience is ‘inertia’ (Dekker 1999) – difficulty in starting, stopping, planning and changing activities. Initiation difficulties are often physical: despite knowing what to do (and how to do it), they just cannot start doing it. One of the possible causes can be an inability to control their bodies or other movement impairments . We don’t even have proper control of our bodies. Both staying still and moving whe

Autistic people are said to be (severely) impaired in their ability to empathise with other people which is reflected in the ‘mind-blindness theory’ of autism (Baron-Cohen, Leslie, Frith 1985; Frith 2003). However, contrary to the belief of lack of emotional compassion in autism, autistic individuals may experience enhanced emotionality (along with enhanced perception) (Markram et al . 2007). There are different types of empathy: sensory empathy, emotional (affective) empathy

It is not as simple as ABC When we come across a behaviour that’s difficult, there’s a popular method that’s used to help parents and carers to analyse what’s happening and do something about it. You may have heard about it – or even used it. It’s called the ABC approach the idea of which is that you find a trigger for the behaviour ( A ntecedent), define the B ehaviour and provide the ‘ C onsequence’ (for example, ignore/ time out) for this (often deemed ‘inappropriate’) beh

A splinter skill or a learning style? One morning (not the best time for me – getting ready for my work), my autistic son (who had started saying his first words at the age of seven – a few months before that day) suddenly said, ‘The weather was stormy and the family decided to stay at home.’ - Where did you hear that? What are you talking about? I turned around to see that my boy was not talking to me, he was reading ! His school textbook was open but not at the page with pi

The Flynn effect – named after Professor James Flynn of the University of Otago in New Zealand – refers to a phenomenon of rising IQ scores of abstract and visuo-spatial skills over time. Flynn (1987) analysed the trend of rising IQ in 14 countries between 1932 and 1978, providing evidence for rising IQ scores of abstract and visuo-spatial skills: a 13.8-point increase in IQ scores. It means a 0.3-point increase per year, or approximately 3 points per decade. So, in the l

It is not straightforward Despite differences in approaches to define ‘intelligence ’, most experts agree that intelligence is the capacity to learn, think logically about abstract concepts and the ability to adapt to the cultural environment . Functional and intellectual disability Donna Williams (1996) distinguishes between functional and intellectual disability. The first one is to do with how a person functions in the world based on the capacity to act on the informat

Big world people [non-autistics] can be considered idiots in the autistic world, too, just as it can be the other way round. (Jasmine O’Neill) What we really measure with IQ tests of autistic people is how well a person can function (or even communicate his/her functioning) in a different perceptual/ cognitive/ linguistic/ social world using perceptual / cognitive / language systems available to him (but unidentified by the test). Different forms of intelligence The phenomeno