Teaching Children with Autism to Mind-Read A

The difficulties experienced by children with autism and related conditions in inferring the thoughts, beliefs, desires and intentions of others are well documented in numerous studies. It now seems that these deficits underlie many of the social and communication problems that are characteristic of autism. Teaching Children with Autism to Mind-Read explores the relationship of "theory of mind" deficits to other areas of children's functioning and describes existing experimental work that has attempted to enhance the skills associated with understanding others' minds. Drawing on their own intervention programme, and providing detailed information about the teaching materials and strategies they use, the authors provide practical guidelines for helping children with autism spectrum conditions to improve their understanding of beliefs, emotions and pretence. The authors tackle specific problematic issues including: how to interpret facial expressions how to recognise feelings of anger, sadness, fear and happiness how feelings are affected by what happens and what is expected to happen how to see things from another person's perspective how to understand another person's knowledge and beliefs This easy-to-follow graded teaching guide is of particular relevance to special needs teachers, educational and clinical psychologists, speech and language therapists, and carers of children with autism spectrum conditions.

Patricia Howlin is Principal Clinical Psychologist at the Maudsley Hospital, London, working mainly with autistic children and those suffering from pervasive developmental disorders. She is also Senior Lecturer in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, London. She has been involved in research and treatment with autistic children for many years. Her research interests include a follow-up study of autistic individuals, and a comparison of young autistic adults and a matched group of individuals with severe early language delays.

Simon Baron-Cohen is Professor of Developmental Psychopathology and Director of the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge University, UK, and one of the co-discoverers of the 'theory of mind' deficit in autism. His books include Mindblindness (1995); The Essential Difference (2003); and Autism and Asperger Syndrome: The Facts (2009).

Julie A. Hadwin is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Southampton. She has used cognitive models to study emotional disorders in childhood and has written several seminal papers to understand attention to threat in childhood anxiety. Her publications include Teaching Children with Autism to Mind-Read (with Patricia Howlin and Simon Baron-Cohen, Wiley, 1999).

List of Figures

viii

(1)

List of Tables

ix

(2)

A note to teachers and parents

xi

(1)

Acknowledgements

xii

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1

(22)

Background and aims of the guide

1

(1)

Previous attempts to improve social and communicative deficits in autism

1

(1)

Limitations of traditional approaches to intervention

2

(1)

The normal child as a mind-reader

2

(3)

The importance of mind-reading: What do we use it for?

5

(2)

Making sense of social behaviour

5

(1)

Making sense of communication

6

(1)

Other uses of mind-reading

7

(1)

Mindblindness in autism

7

(2)

Examples from clinical experience

9

(3)

Can mind-reading be taught?

12

(1)

Approaches to teaching mental-state concepts

13

(1)

Overcoming problems of generalization

14

(2)

Outcome of the experimental study

16

(1)

For whom is the Guide designed?

16

(1)

The limitations of teaching approaches of this kind

17

(1)

The structure of the Guide

17

(2)

References

19

(4)

PART II: TEACHING ABOUT EMOTIONS

23

(210)

The five levels of emotional understanding

23

(1)

Level 1: Recognizing facial expression from photographs

24

(2)

Materials and assessment procedures

24

(1)

Establishing a baseline

25

(1)

Teaching procedures

25

(1)

Level 2: Recognizing emotion from schematic drawings

26

(2)

Materials and assessment procedures

26

(1)

Establishing a baseline

27

(1)

Teaching procedures

27

(1)

Level 3: Identifying "situation-based" emotions

28

(51)

Materials and assessment procedures

28

(1)

Establishing a baseline

28

(1)

Teaching procedures

29

(1)

General teaching principle

30

(49)

Level 4: Identifying "desire-based" emotions

79

(51)

Materials and assessment procedures

79

(1)

Establishing a baseline

79

(1)

Teaching procedures

80

(1)

General teaching principle

81

(49)

Level 5: Identifying "belief-based" emotions

130

(103)

Materials and assessment procedures

130

(2)

Establishing a baseline

132

(2)

Teaching procedures

134

(1)

General teaching principle

135

(98)

PART III: TEACHING ABOUT INFORMATIONAL STATES

233

(26)

The five levels of informational state understanding

233

(1)

Level 1: Simple visual perspective taking

234

(3)

Materials and assessment procedures

234

(1)

Establishing a baseline

234

(2)

Teaching procedures

236

(1)

General teaching principle

236

(1)

Level 2: Complex visual perspective taking

237

(3)

Materials and assessment procedures

237

(1)

Establishing a baseline

237

(2)

Teaching procedures

239

(1)

General teaching principle

239

(1)

Level 3: Understanding the principle that "seeing leads to knowing"

240

(5)

Materials and assessment procedures

240

(2)

Establishing a baseline

242

(2)

Teaching procedures

244

(1)

General teaching principle

244

(1)

Level 4: Predicting actions on the basis of a person's knowledge

245

(4)

Materials and assessment procedures

245

(2)

Establishing a baseline

247

(1)

Teaching procedures

248

(1)

General teaching principle

248

(1)

Level 5: Understanding false beliefs

249

(10)

Materials and assessment procedures

249

(5)

Establishing a baseline

254

(2)

Teaching procedures

256

(2)

General teaching principle

258

(1)

PART IV: DEVELOPING PRETEND PLAY

259

(14)

The five levels of pretend play

259

(1)

Assessing and teaching pretend play

260

(13)

Suggested materials and play themes

260

(1)

Establishing a baseline

261

(3)

Assessing spontaneous pretend play

261

(1)

Assessing the pretend-real distinction

262

(2)

Teaching procedures

264

(7)

Increasing the level of pretend play

264

(6)

Teaching the pretend-real distinction

270

(1)

General teaching principles

271

(2)

PART V: FUTURE DIRECTIONS

273

(4)

Using a person's direction of gaze

273

(1)

Using photographs

273

(2)

Using "cartoon thought-bubbles"

275

(1)

Joint attention and empathy

275

(1)

References

276

(1)

Appendix: Examples of record forms

277

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Teaching Children with Autism to Mind-Read A Practical Guide for Teachers and Parents

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials