Scaling of Early Social Cognitive Skills in Typically Developing Infants and Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Scaling of Early Social Cognitive Skills in Typically Developing Infants and Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder Katherine Ellis1,2 · Philippa Lewington2 · Laurie Powis2,3 · Chris Oliver2 · Jane Waite2,4 · Mary Heald2,5 · Ian Apperly5 · Priya Sandhu2,5 · Hayley Crawford6,7
© The Author(s) 2020
Abstract We delineate the sequence that typically developing infants pass tasks that assess different early social cognitive skills considered precursors to theory-of-mind abilities. We compared this normative sequence to performance on these tasks in a group of autistic (AUT) children. 86 infants were administered seven tasks assessing intention reading and shared intentionality (Study 1). Infants responses followed a consistent developmental sequence, forming a four-stage scale. These tasks were administered to 21 AUT children (Study 2), who passed tasks in the same sequence. However, performance on tasks that required following others’ eye gaze and cooperating with others was delayed. Findings indicate that earlier-developing skills provide a foundation for later-developing skills, and difficulties in acquiring some early social cognitive skills in AUT children. Keywords Autism spectrum disorder · Theory of mind · Precursors · Social cognition
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04449-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Chris Oliver [email protected] 1
Present Address: School of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, UK
2
Cerebra Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
3
Present Address: The West Community Assessment and Treatment Service, Marlowes Health and Wellbeing Centre, 39‑41 The Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead HP1 1LD, UK
4
School of Life & Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK
5
School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
6
Present Address: CMHWR and Mental Health and Wellbeing Unit, Division of Health Sciences, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK
7
Faculty of Health & Life Sciences, Coventry University, Coventry, UK
‘Theory of Mind’ (ToM) is hypothesised to play a crucial role in successful interaction, allowing individuals to take the perspective of others and engage in complex social behaviour (Baron-Cohen et al. 2013). Evidence suggests that some ToM deficits might underpin difficulties in social interaction and communication in those with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autistic children (AUT) (Baron-Cohen 1995; Baron-Cohen et al. 1985; Kimhi 2014), and genetic syndromes such as fragile X (Morel et al. 2018; Losh et al. 2012), Williams (Morel et al. 2018) and Down (Cebula et al. 2010) syndromes. ToM has been studied most intensively in young children aged 3 to 6 years (Wimmer and Perner 1983; Wellman et al. 2001), generating evidence that suggests ToM abilities in this perio
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