The next of the core characteristics that I’d like to address is theory of mind. Theory of mind is being able to take someone else’s perspective. Do I think I know what you’re thinking? You know, and then later on, do I think I know what you think about someone else? And when we talk about theory of mind we don’t just talk about feelings.
We also talk about words like knowing and remembering and thinking, and understanding, “How do I think? What is my opinion?” as well as, “How do you think, and what is your opinion?” We have those two things on the cognitive level, and then on an affective level we have, how does someone feel when they fell down and skinned their knee? Or how do I feel?
Many times when I’m with children and they’ll have fallen down and they have a skinned knee and it’s obvious they feel awful. And I’ll say, “How do you feel?” And they’ll say “Happy,” because they want to give you the answer that they’d like and they’re not as in touch with their feelings at that point. So we spend a great deal of time trying to get them to understand not only how they feel but how others feel, and get what they know and what other people would know.
When we think about it in terms of reading comprehension, the impact is just huge. If you have a narrative story, especially if they have multiple characters, well, why did Anne want to get to the top of the hill? And why did Joe want to get to the top of the hill? Why did they have that argument? Did they feel proud of each other when they were done? All that kind of character perspective and their own background and what their motive is comes into it. And it’s all pretend, so someone has to, “It’s not real,” which may be difficult for children with autism. The reader has to say, “Oh, this is a pretend story about Polly, but this is what Polly is thinking.” A lot of times when we’re dealing with theory of mind we have to really talk about the difference between someone speaking and someone thinking and what they might be thinking.
What might be their motive behind those things? And that’s very difficult for children with autism.
I think in anything, especially when you’re talking about people’s emotions and how other people feel, that connection is so important. That’s one of the reasons why it’s very important that we use evidence-based strategies like activating schemas. You know, you have to start with a child with autism where they are, what their functional experience is.
What have they done, what do they know? And bring those in, so they can organize their brain and say, “Oh, I understand. That’s like when I did” — whatever. And that brings their learning in and organizes their learning so it makes sense.
