Resumen de Theory of mind in down syndrome and autism spectrum disorder a study in iran and sweden
The study reported herein, explored the comprehension of Theory of Mind (ToM) implemented in children with Down syndrome (DS), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and Typically Developing (TD) individuals during middle childhood and early adolescence. The participants included 74 Iranian and 66 Swedish schoolers ranged between 6 to 12 years old in these groups of children. To examine the role of the IQ and the first-second and-third order of Theory of Mind tasks, participants’ were assessed using the Raven’s Progressive Matrices (RPMs), and Sally and Anne, Smarties Tube Task, Representational Change Task, New ToM test to access mental state understanding in belief-attribution abilities. The TRF and CBCL behavior scales were administered to obtain the medical and behavior problems or psychological information about children behavior at home and school. Additionally, Socioeconomic Status (SES) was used to assess family socioeconomic status. The results were analyzed using SPSS 25 for analysis of variance (ANOVA) and correlation coefficient to assess the differences between the groups on ToM tasks. The level of significance was set at .05. In line with previous studies the first order results reveal that Iranian individuals with ASD reach to better scores than children with DS, and that TD group performed better than both groups of children with ASD and DS. Similarly, in Sweden, the pattern, except one task was the same and no significant differences found. Next, TD children performed better than clinical groups for the second-order and there was no significant difference between ASD and DS in both countries. The same picture was found for Iranian sample for third order; however, in Sweden, children with ASD scored significantly better than children with DS. Children with higher intelligence quotient performed better in ToM tasks in all cases except for Smart_ RQ and SAR tasks which is previously documented. Behavior function was assessed through teachers’ scores but not from a parent’s point of view in the scores of social problems, and thought problems. Indeed, thought and social problems scales would show stronger correlation to ToM results. The results highlight that the effect of the culture is partially verified in specific tasks that the children develop during their childhood, but not for the whole construct of ToM. To addressing family SES concerning children’s ToM understanding that did not report a clear link in any case of these groups.
