Scaling of Verbal and Nonverbal Theory of Mind (ToM): Evidence from children speaking Palestinian Arabic with and without Autism

The current study was devised to assess Theory of Mind (ToM) skills (both verbal and nonverbal) of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and children with typical development (TD) speaking Palestinian Arabic. It is agreed that impaired ToM is a core feature of ASD (Baron-Cohen, Leslie, & Frith, 1985). Yet, it is not clear whether children with ASD follow the same pattern of progression as children with TD on ToM skills. Two groups of children participated: children with ASD (n=10) (Mage= 100months, SD =31.50) and the control group of children with TD (n=44) (Mage= 87months, SD =18.32). The two groups did not differ on non-verbal IQ (as measure by Raven, 1998) and socio-economic status (as measure by mother`s years of education). The ASD group was significantly older than the TD group. Children were tested on a large battery of tasks, which included 5 subtasks tapping into verbal ToM skills (Diverse Desires, Diverse Beliefs, Content False-Belief, first-order location False-Belief, second-order False-Belief). The nonverbal ToM was evaluated using a picture-sequencing task requiring children to arrange three pictures to complete a story composed of four cards (Baron-Cohenet al., 1986). The sequences required children to understand the stories in terms of causal-mechanical, descriptive-behavioral, and psychological-intentional criteria. The results indicated that children with ASD scored lower on ToM (verbal and nonverbal). There was high heterogeneity in the ASD group. On verbal ToM, there were significant differences on False-Belief subtasks, yet no differences on Diverse Desire and Diverse Belief. On nonverbal ToM, there were significant differences on the conditions involving ToM, i.e., involving psychological-intentional criteria. The results confirmed previous studies that children with ASD have a deficit in ToM, yet the findings show that children with ASD initially follow the same pattern of ToM scale as children with TD.