“Social Communication Difficulties”

Narrow Interests and Repetitive “Behaviours”

Baron-Cohen, 2008

Leo Kanner was the founder of what we know as Autism.

He first identified Autism in The United States of America in 1943 by observing 11 patients in his Baltimore Clinic

Termed ‘Autistic Aloneness’

Autism is known as a spectrum disorder which belongs to a group known as developmental disabilities as it affects information processing to the brain by changing how nerve cells connect and organise

Autism is known as a spectrum disorder due to varying degrees of each individual’s needs and capabilities

Autism affects around 1 in a thousand people, with approximately four times as many males as females

Learning difficulties or lower IQ

High Risk of Epilepsy

Self Injury

Hypersensitivity to sounds, textures, tastes, smells and temperature.

• No language delay

• Gifted language development

• Narrow interests e.g maps, train times

• Preference of adult company

• Bossy and controlling

• Withdrawal or being intrusive

• Excellent attention to memory

• IQ average or above.

Aspergers – Average IQ and no language delay

Autism – IQ appears anywhere on scale and has language delay.

Social difficulties

Communication abnormalities

Repetitive behaviour

Beliefs Desires Intentions Imagination Emotions

Most children develop Tom around age 2 Results compared with normal children of

a similar developmental stage (in this case aged 3-4).

Seeing Leads to Knowing (Sally, Ann Test)

(Marble in the Basket) Baron-Cohen & Goodhart, 1994; Leslie &

Firth, 1998

WITH TOM WITHOUT TOM

Dreaming Wanting Thinking Keeping

Secrets Moving Staying Alive

Only able to identify physical function

Fail to identify any mental function

WITH TOM WITHOUT TOM

Candle in shape of an apple

It looks like an apple but is really a candle

Object is an apple

Or its a candle

One or other

WITH TOM WITHOUT TOM

Little Red Riding Hood thinks its her grandmother in bed but it really is the wicked wolf

Its a wolf

A selection of ‘Strange Stories’

• Adapted from: Kaland et. al (2005) The Strange Stories test. A replication study of children and adolescents with Asperger syndrome.

• and • Jolliffe & Baron-Cohen (1999) The Strange

Stories Test: A Replication with High-Functioning Adults with Autism or Asperger Syndrome

Katie and Emma are playing in the house. Emma picks up a banana from the fruit bowl and holds it up to her ear. She says to Katie, “Look! This banana is a telephone!”

Is it true what Emma says? Yes/No/Don’t know

Why does Emma say this?

One day Aunt Jane came to visit Peter. Now Peter loves his aunt very much, but today she is wearing a new hat; a new hat, which Peter thinks is very ugly indeed.

Peter thinks his aunt looks silly in it, and

much nicer in her old hat. But when Aunt Jane asks Peter, “How do you like my new hat”, Peter says, “Oh, its very nice”.

Was it true, what Peter said? Yes/No/Don’t know

Why did he say it?

Do individuals with Autism and Aspergers lack Theory of Mind

Vote YES/NO

Difficulties arise such as social interaction Difficulty forming friendships. View people as objects. Lack of Empathy see another’s perspective. operate in their own world.

Case study lists difficulties he has throughout his life with Aspergers

Baron-Cohen 2008

Baron-Cohen, 2001. Theory of Mind in normal development and autism: Prisme 34, 174-183

Baron-Cohen, 2008, Autism and Aspergers Syndrome: The Facts. Oxford. University Press

Baron-Cohen, S.,Leslie, A.M., & Frith, U.  (1985) Does the autistic child have a ‘theory of mind’?  Cognition, 21, 37-46 [online] http://www.holah.karoo.net/baronstudy.htm [accessed 13th October 2011]

  National Autistic Society. (2011). What is Autism.[online]:

http://www.autism.org.uk/about-autism/autism-and-asperger-syndrome-an-introduction/what-is-autism.aspx.[ accessed 13th October 2011]