Autism spectrum disorders,pdd nos?

Question

is it possible for a child who has been coach in theory of mind tasks to help improve his social skills,would he pass a schools theory of mind test? if any one has any info on this or know of a site where I can find more info on it I would greatly apreciate it. I have looked into all the typical a.s.d sites and have found nothing to back me up.

Answer 1

Actually -  Michelle Garcia-Winner has done some nice work in Theory of Mind- in some of her books there are samples and I find the 2 way interview particularly useful.  There is not one particular test that comes to mind.

Her materials are at: http://www.socialthinking.com/

Theory of Mind does not improve Social Skills on the surface but does help student better understand others perspectives that allows them in turn to be more socially appropriate.

Answer 2

i do not have a link for you. but i went through the same thing my son joshua was diagnosed with pdd.nos outside of the school. when the school tested him they said there was a problem but not severe he was in the normal range so his special ed minutes were cut in half . my point is get him tested buy an independant autisum spectrum team. my son was diagnosed and his special ed team grew and his minutes doubled. the school will only give you the bare minimum of what a child needs. they can not fignt a medical diagnoses by a certified doctor. and yes children with pdd-nos can memorize words, pictures, phrase and etc.very well. my son reads at a second grade level (but only by memory) he can NOT comprehend what he is reading.  i hope this helps.  good luck and god bless. kit-kat

Answer 3

It's likely ( not definite) that an autistic child or a child with PDD who has been coached in theory of mind would have memorized most of what they were taught, not actually processed it, so if they were to take a test, they would only get specific answers right which they had seen exactly that way before, so the chances of them doing well still might not be great, because of course you can't study for every possible answer. A very high functioning child they might have some capability to actually learn it rather than memorizing it, but obviously theory of mind is not a strength for most ASD individuals, they do much better with concrete info.

Answer 4

I am not aware of a standardized theory of mind test. The most common example I have seen is the Sally Ann test

for a description see

http://www.mugsy.org/asa_faq/issues/tom....

The "Gold Standard" generally though anyway is the ADOS (Autism Diagnostic Observation Scale). Although they don't use the term theory of mind.. it typically access perspective taking, joint attention, shared enjoyment, reciprocity. The kind of things that kids with autism have difficulty with, but is not really captured in any other standardized tests to my knowledge.

Children with autism often have times generalizing and using skills taught in a rote or isolated fashion. So they may learn the skills and be able to repeat them in a similar type of test environment that is pretty far from the real world, and they could still have real issues relating to people and taking perspective in daily tasks.

If you are unhappy with the school district evaluation because you feel they have not properly assessed your child's areas of needs you can request and IEE (independent educational evaluation) where an outside person can conduct a more thorough or appropriate evaluation of 1 or both of your children to help get the answers it seems you are looking for. www.wrightslaw.com has lots of information on this and how to advocate for your children.

Answer 5

My son has Asperger's Syndrome and scored in the 99% on a recent theory of mind test given by a neuropsychologist.  This was after well over a year of "coaching" on our part - we had a social skills computer program, flash cards with emotions, etc that really helped.

I don't have a specific site to refer you to, just my personal experience.  The neuropsych was impressed with his recognition of emotions in the pictures used during the test.