Explain what you understand about the controversy surrounding TOM for individuals with Autism|My homework helper

Posted: March 16th, 2023

APA style, Your responses to these prompts should be 2 pages.

1.In your own words describe Theory of Mind (TOM) and how it develops for typically developing children.

2.Explain what you understand about the controversy surrounding TOM for individuals with Autism (note: you will not be able to answer this question without having completed all the readings and videos – you need to cite Gernsbacher & Yergeau in this response!)

3.In several sentences reflect on what you learned from Gernsbacher & Yergeau (2019), Jac den Houring’s TED Talk and the interview with Oscar. Consider the statement that everything we know about autism is wrong, how might this be correct or incorrect?

4.What is the double empathy problem that Jac den Houting discusses? Gernsbacher & Yergeau’s (2019) also mention this when they say that neurotypicals find it hard to understand the intentions of autistic people. Why is understanding the double empathy problem important in the work we do with children?

5.What are some specific strategies that we can use to adapt the educational environment or the ways that we interact in order to meet the needs of children with autism?

Jac den Houting resources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1AUdaH-EPM

Empirical Failures of the Claim That Autistic People Lack a Theory of Mind

Morton Ann Gernsbacher University of Wisconsin—Madison

Melanie Yergeau University of Michigan

BA BA A B S T R A C T

The claim that autistic people lack a theory of mind—that they fail to understand that other people have a mind or that they themselves have a mind—pervades psychology. This article (a) reviews empirical evidence that fails to support the claim that autistic people are uniquely impaired, much less that all autistic people are universally impaired, on theory-of-mind tasks; (b) highlights original findings that have failed to replicate; (c) documents multiple instances in which the various theory-of-mind tasks fail to relate to each other and fail to account for autistic traits, social interaction, and empathy; (c) summarizes a large body of data, collected by researchers working outside the theory-of-mind rubric, that fails to support assertions made by researchers working inside the theory-of-mind rubric; and (d) concludes that the claim that autistic people lack a theory of mind is empirically questionable and societally harmful.

S C I E N T I F I C A B S T R A C T

The assertion that autistic people lack a theory of mind—that they fail to understand that other people have a mind or that they themselves have a mind—pervades psychology. In this article, we critically examine the empirical basis of this assertion. We review empirical evidence that fails to support the claim that autistic people are uniquely impaired, much less that all autistic people are universally impaired, on theory-of-mind tasks. We highlight seminal theory- of-mind findings that have failed to replicate. We document multiple instances in which the various theory-of-mind tasks fail to converge and fail to predict autistic traits, social interaction, and empathy. We summarize a large body of data, collected by researchers working outside the theory-of-mind rubric, that fails to support assertions made by

This article was published December 9, 2019. Morton Ann Gernsbacher, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin—Madison; Melanie Yergeau, Department of English Language and Literature,

University of Michigan. This article is part of the special section “Heterodox Issues in Psychology.” The guest editor for this section is Scott O. Lilienfeld. The authors have made available for use by others the data that underlie the analyses presented in this article (see Gernsbacher, 2018a), thus allowing replication

and potential extensions of this work by qualified researchers. Next users are obligated to involve the data originators in their publication plans, if the originators so desire.

The data are available at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/3R2QY The experiment materials are available at https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/3R2QY

SOLUTION

Theory of Mind (TOM) refers to the ability to understand and attribute mental states (beliefs, desires, intentions, emotions, etc.) to oneself and to others. It is a crucial aspect of social cognition that allows individuals to make predictions about the behaviors of others based on their mental states. The development of TOM for typically developing children occurs gradually over the first few years of life. Infants begin to develop an awareness of their own mental states and those of others by six months of age. By the age of two, children begin to understand that others have beliefs and desires that are different from their own. By four years of age, children can distinguish between appearance and reality, and they can understand false beliefs. By five years of age, children can make inferences about others’ emotions based on their facial expressions, tone of voice, and body language.