Communication Strategies

Theory of mind refers to an individual’s ability to “infer other people’s mental states (e.g., thoughts, beliefs, desires, intentions)”, and the ability to use this information to interpret what other’s say, make sense of other’s behavior, and predict what others will do next. Studies have shown that children with autism have particular difficulty in reasoning about mental states. Specific problematic areas may include:

• Insensitivity to other people’s feelings

• Inability to take into account what other people know

• Inability to negotiate friendships by reading and responding to intentions

• Inability to read the listener’s level of interest in one’s speech

• Inability to detect a speaker’s intended meaning

• Inability to anticipate what other’s might think of one’s actions

• Inability to understand misunderstandings

• Inability to deceive or understand deception

• Inability to understand the reason’s behind people’s actions

• Inability to understand “unwritten rules” or conventions

Many teaching strategies have been used to teach children how to “mind read.” These strategies may be applied during play, with pictures, computers, and games. The tasks are usually designed to be rewarding to the child. In addition, the chosen materials are intended to increase the rate of learning and heighten the child’s performance. The following is a set of principles that are considered when teaching theory of mind.

• Teaching is broken into small steps to allow gradual acquisition of complex skills and concepts

• Normal developmental sequences can serve as a guide to determine the order of skill acquisition.

• Naturalistic teaching environments have been found to be more effective.

• Behaviors that are appropriately reinforced will typically be acquired more rapidly and will likely be maintained.

• Errorless learning results in greater speed of task.

• Generalization can be enhanced if teaching focuses on the principles that underlie concepts, rather than solely relying on instruction.

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Howlin, P., Baron-Cohen, S., & Hadwin, J. (1999). Teaching children with autism to mind-read. New York: John Wiley & Sons.