Do children with PDDNOS have a theory of mind?
Kids with PDD-NOS show milder theory-of-mind gaps than autistic samples, so tailor social-cognition goals accordingly.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team asked: do kids with PDD-NOS really lack a theory of mind? They gave standard false-belief tasks to a small group of children with PDD-NOS and to language-impaired peers. Then they compared the scores.
What they found
Children with PDD-NOS did worse than the language-impaired group, but the gap was smaller than what earlier autism studies had shown. The deficit is real, yet milder.
How this fits with other research
van Rijn et al. (2013) extend these results. They show that within PDD-NOS, kids who also meet MCDD criteria have extra trouble with executive function. Together the papers say: check both ToM and EF to see who needs the most help.
Mordre et al. (2012) follow the same children into adulthood. They find the milder ToM profile seen here links to slightly better adult outcomes, such as lower rates of disability pension. The child assessment foreshadows the adult picture.
Porter et al. (2008) give us a newer tool. Their ToM Storybooks offer 34 reliable tasks that later studies can swap in for the older measures used here.
Why it matters
Do not treat PDD-NOS as ‘autism-lite’ or ‘autism-same.’ Target social-cognition goals, but expect quicker progress than you would with classic autism. Pair your ToM probe with a brief executive-function screen—if the child also fits MCDD, plan extra self-regulation support.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study sought to differentiate PDDNOS from a similar nonautistic disorder (i.e., language impairment) on the basis of a cognitive deficit, theory-of-mind (ToM). ToM is an ability to infer mental states in others and has been found to be highly prevalent in autism, a disorder that shares many characteristics with PDDNOS (Baron-Cohen, 1985; Volkmar & Cohen, 1988). A sample of 28 children with either PDDNOS or a language impairment formed two groups (n = 14), matched on gender and verbal mental age. Participants were administered the brain function task (Baron-Cohen, 1989) and the false belief task (Perner, Frith, Leslie, & Leekam, 1989) to assess ToM. Results suggest that children with PDDNOS are deficient in a ToM ability, however, this relationship is not as strong as in previous studies with autistic samples, suggesting that children with PDDNOS may have a greater ToM ability. The existence of PDDNOS on the higher end of a spectrum of the Pervasive Developmental disorders as well as the construct of ToM itself existing on a continuum are discussed.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 1999 · doi:10.1023/a:1023032122489