Development of social cognition in children with autism spectrum disorders: A combined developmental approach

This paper presents a study on social cognition development in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A six-month follow-up was conducted on 65 children aged four to ten with ASD compared to typically developing children. Children were pooled on three nonverbal mental age groups (4 to 5 years old, 5 to 7 years old, 7 years old and over)Children's theory of mind and understanding of emotions were assessed with two batteries of tests: the ToM Storybooks (Blijd-Hoogewys et al, 2003) and the TEC (Pons & Harris, 2000). Our results show that children's scores are improving over time for the two test batteries. We also find a development of this understanding according to mental age groups. Finally, in the development of social cognition, understanding false beliefs appears to be a particular difficulty for children with ASD.