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I found some resources to test Theory of Mind: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZBKer6PMtM - Heider and Simmel's classic test. Play it twice. During the second playing, have the child tell a story of what's happening. NTs almost always give the shapes human attributes, personalities and motivations. Kids with autism often tell about movements and physical characteristics instead. http://www.asperger-advice.com/sally-and-anne.html - Sally and Anne test in comic form. My 6-3/4 year old son failed it, my 10 year old passed it. http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/zelazo/Seigal_Varley_NRN_ 02.pdf - the fishing task. I'm not totally sure I understood the directions correctly, but what I did was print it out twice and cut out the weeds in the first picture. I taped the reeds over the fish in the one picture, and over the boot in the other picture. I showed them the fish picture, they lifted the flap, and I asked what the boy thought was in the weeds. Then I showed them the boot picture, they lifted the flap, and I asked them what the boy thought was in the weeds. They answered wrong. Anyone have an NT kid to test this procedure on? http://www.bu.edu/anatneuro/dcn/researchers_and_students/pub lications/second-order.pdf - script for the birthday gift task. I haven't tried this one yet. http://bp3.blogger.com/_JflrjiMnR0Y/R9_ypy47OYI/AAAAAAAAAe8/ 0SI3WI04AOE/s1600-h/smarties.gif - cartoon showing the Smarties task. A pencil is hidden in a candy box. The child guesses there is candy in there, but is shown there is a pencil. Another child will be joining them. What will he guess is in the box? A child with low ToM skills will say pencil. http://web.mit.edu/bcs/nklab/media/pdfs/SaxeKanwisherNeuroIm age03.pdf - some Theory of Mind questions with control questions that require making other kinds of inferences. http://neurologicalcorrelates.com/wordpress/2008/05/20/new-p sychological-research-on-narcissist-narcissists-are-motivate d-by-gain-than-deterred-by-potential-loss-narcissists-get-pa ranoid-when-depressed-and-gaming-addicts-are-high-on-narciss ism-and-aggr/ - Scroll down for a set of four comics. A is about cooperation, B is about deception, and C is about cooperative deception. D is a control question (these were used in a study involving brain activity while looking at the comics). http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/5/12 - Figure 1 shows a TOM comic on the right. Table 3 gives examples of acceptable and unacceptable answers about what's happening in the comic. http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v7/n4/box/nrn1884_BX1.html - A Sally Ann type story called "Max and the chocolate" and a theory of mind cartoon (left). Any other resources? I got interested in this topic after reading a Norwegian book by Nils Kaland, who developed his own version of Happe's "Strange Stories." Happe's test is often used in psychology research to test Theory of Mind. Kaland wrote stories to test 13 types of situations that are problematic for people lacking Theory of Mind. I didn't think the stories were that great, certainly not for my kids' age group, but I thought it was interesting to see a break-down of these situations. It makes it easier to start thinking about what my kids need more practice on: 1. Lies/deception - for example, a father who lies, pretending his son saw the "real Santa" when his son suspects that it was just Dad in a costume. 2. White lies - for example, a Grandma who lies about carrying lots of cash because her grandson is worried about thieves. 3. Metaphors and figures of speech - for example, castles in the air. 4. Misunderstandings - for example a story where the singer thought someone was mentioning his hit song "is that your umbrella?" when the person actually meant it literally -- the singer forgot his umbrella on the bus. 5. Double bluff - when someone tells the truth because they think the other person won't believe it, and this will lead to the desired outcome 6. Sarcasm/irony - for example, a big brother commenting that his little brother's room is "sparkling clean, as usual" when it's not. 7. Convincing/manipulating - The stories involved taking advantage of a situation to receive a desired outcome (a selfish motive disguised in an argument that it's for someone else's benefit). For example, the mother wanted to get rid of the family dog, and her daughter's asthma attack gave her a good opportunity to do so and seem selfless. 8. Mixed feelings - for example, a mother who wants to stay home with her baby, but is also tempted by an exciting job offer. 9. Forgetfullness - for example, a man forgets his glasses at the bank and he suddenly dashes off when his wife uses the word glasses (only a person with Theory of Mind would understand why he dashed off). 10. Jealousy - for example, a girl who says she hates her little brother -- she's jealous of all the attention he got on his birthday. 11. Lack of consideration - for example, a teenager who's mad that his mom bought the wrong brand of juice and insists that she go back to the store even though she's exhausted. 12. Hidden intentions - for example, a woman who asks if the clock she's looking at is very expensive. "Yes" is not the answer she's looking for, she wants to know the price. The other example was a girl who asks if her friend could wait for her. She isn't looking for information ("Yes, I'm capable of waiting"), she is intending that her friend actually wait. 13. "Social growlers" - Both stories involved someone who unthinkingly made a mistake and got a big reaction. For example, a kid who was sent to the store and came back with the wrong stuff. The stressed out mom yelled "What, are you crazy? What am I supposed to do with this stuff!" It wasn't a multiple choice kind of test. Instead, they talked with an interviewer about each story. Kaland found both quantitative and qualitative differences in the way people with Aspergers answered compared to NTs. Quantitatively, they took more time and got more answers wrong. Qualitatively, they operated with their own strange logic, and also focused on physical rather than social reality (ie concrete circumstances rather than motives). Kaland also listed how poor Theory of Mind skills can affect the person: 1) Trouble predicting how other people will react to what ASD person does. 2) Trouble taking into account what other people know and giving appropriate background and context during conversations. 3) Trouble understanding the motives behind others' actions and decisions, so if the ASD person doesn't get their way, they can be very antagonistic towards people who are actually trying to help them. 4) Trouble understanding deceit, which makes the ASD person an easy target for con artists and others who try to take advantage of them. Norwaymom, what age should a NT child be able to answer the TOM tests correctly? I have a 4 year old that I can try the test on but not sure if she it too young. Drmomtojoe -- Good question. According to Wiki, most children under the age of 4 will fail the Sally Anne task. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally-Anne_test Another Wiki article seems to say that before age 3 or 4, kids have Theory of Mind, but not well-developed enough to succeed at a false belief task like Sally Anne. Their developing Theory of Mind is shown through the skills listed below. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind#False-belief_tas k - joint attention - gaze following - proto-declarative pointing (ie using the index finger to point to indicate interest in something rather than as a command/request). - knowing the difference between animate beings vs. inanimate objects - awareness of others as "intentional agents" (ie acting in a goal-directed manner, for example babies mimic things we do on purpose, but not unintentional behaviors) On a related note, here's a link to my collection of pointing resources, including an online game for testing gaze following: http://www.autism-pdd.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=23334&am p;KW=pointing+resources hey everyone, I very much understand that we are not to use this site as an advertising tool. However, your discussion of "theory of mind" is very influential in a product that my wife and I have just created: Playtime with Zeebu. It is designed for children from ages 3-10 and very much focuses on this topic, in a very simplistic way, for very young children on the spectrum. We are planning on continuing the development of this idea in written form (books, workbooks, ect...) so if you have ideas on what you would like to see in print for this age group, please let me know. www.playtimewithzeebu.com Thanks. I very much appreciate the valuable information me and my family get on this web site. Dave Thanks for the tip about your website gallo_57. I'm personally okay with it as long as a commercial website has some free content. Your website has 2 video clips on being calm, which I felt could be used as sort of a social story about breathing techniques and how being calm helps us think. Therefore I added a link to your website from my sample social stories collection. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the comments and the link. We are trying to create a brand of products for newly diagnosed kids that teaches perspective taking. I know first hand how difficult it is for my boys to understand this concept. We hope to simplify these ideas so everyone can add this social piece to the other programs they have in place. My wife and I have seen first hand how improvements in social connections positively impact every area of learning. It looks like your in Norway. If you are in the states, then send me your address and I will drop a copy of our work in the mail to you. Go to our website and send your info in using the "contact us" tab. Dave Yep, I'm in Norway. I'm originally from Minnesota.Above are questions/situations to test a child's Theory of Mind directly. But there are also questions you can answer as a parent, signs of lack of Theory of Mind that you may have observed. These questions are from Parenting Your Asperger Child by Alan Sohn, Ed.D., and Cathy Grayson, M.A. A. Mindblindness (theory of mind). This refers to the individual’s ability to predict relationships between external and internal states. It is the ability to make inferences about what another person is thinking. �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� Source: http://printables.familyeducation.com/tv/printables/fe/pc/0, ,33712-1563,00.pdf |
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