Perceived social acceptance, theory of mind and social adjustment in children with intellectual disabilities.
For preschoolers with ID, boosting perceived social acceptance may be the key bridge between ToM gains and real-world social adjustment.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team compared the preschoolers. Half had mild intellectual disability. Half were typically developing. All kids were matched on mental age, about four years.
Each child took a false-belief task, a puppet interview on perceived acceptance, and teacher ratings of social adjustment. The goal was to see if feeling accepted links theory-of-mind scores to real-life social skills.
What they found
Kids with ID scored lower on false-belief tasks and on social adjustment. Yet the pathway looked the same in both groups. When a child felt more accepted by peers, stronger theory-of-mind scores translated into better social adjustment.
In short, perceived acceptance acted like a bridge. No bridge, no transfer from lab task to playground behavior.
How this fits with other research
Granader et al. (2014) seems to disagree. They found that preschoolers with ASD and average IQ had weaker theory-of-mind and social skills, while Catherine’s kids with ID kept the same mind–social link as typical peers. The gap is about diagnosis, not IQ. ASD brings extra social hurdles; ID alone does not break the pathway.
Nader-Grosbois (2014) extends the story to older kids. Teens with ID saw themselves as equally competent, but used fewer self-regulation tricks. Together the two papers hint that acceptance stays important across ages, while strategy use matures later.
Goldfarb et al. (2024) later confirmed the bridge idea in 6- to young learners. Theory-of-mind and executive function carried motor skills into social success, showing the pattern holds beyond preschool.
Why it matters
You can teach false-belief all day, but if the child feels left out the skill may never reach recess. Build peer acceptance first: pair the child with friendly buddies, script entry lines, celebrate joint play, then run your ToM lessons. The social piece is the glue.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Perceived social acceptance, theory of mind (ToM) and social adjustment were investigated in 45 children with intellectual disabilities (ID) compared with 45 typically developing (TD) preschoolers, matched for developmental age assessed by means of the Differential Scales of Intellectual Efficiency-Revised edition (EDEI-R, Perron-Borelli, 1996). Children's understanding of beliefs and emotions was assessed by means of ToM belief tasks (Nader-Grosbois & Thirion-Marissiaux, 2011) and ToM emotion tasks (Nader-Grosbois & Thirion-Marissiaux, 2011). Seven items from the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for children (PSPCSA, Harter & Pike, 1980) assessed children's perceived social acceptance. Their teachers completed the Social Adjustment for Children Scale (EASE, Hughes, Soares-Boucaud, Hochmann, & Frith, 1997). For both groups together, the results showed that perceived social acceptance mediates the relation between ToM skills and social adjustment. The presence or absence of intellectual disabilities does not moderate the relations either between ToM skills and perceived social acceptance, or between perceived social acceptance and social adjustment. The study did not confirm the difference hypothesis of structural and relational patterns between these three processes in children with ID, but instead supported the hypothesis of a similar structure that develops in a delayed manner.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2012 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2012.05.017