Contribution of Theory of Mind, Executive Functioning, and Pragmatics to Socialization Behaviors of Children with High-Functioning Autism.
For fluent autistic clients, poor everyday mind-reading and odd pragmatics—not general severity—directly shrink social contacts.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Berenguer et al. (2018) compared verbally fluent autistic kids with typical peers. They gave tests for theory of mind, executive function, and everyday pragmatics. Then they watched how each child acted during free play and lunch.
The team used numbers to see if poor ToM or pragmatics explained worse social skills.
What they found
Autistic kids scored lower on real-life ToM and pragmatic language. These gaps, not autism severity, directly predicted fewer peer contacts and less social talk.
In plain words: weak mind-reading and odd conversation style block friendships.
How this fits with other research
Cardillo et al. (2021) repeated the idea and also found ToM, not EF, drives pragmatic problems. The match backs the claim that mind-reading sits in the middle of the chain.
Kouklari et al. (2018) seems to disagree. They saw EF predict ToM but not social talk in 8-12-year-olds. The gap is age: Carmen’s mix of kids still needs pragmatics, while older ones may lean on other skills.
Goldfarb et al. (2024) widened the picture. They added motor skills and showed EF plus ToM together explain most social variance. The 2024 paper keeps ToM in the model but says don’t ignore body coordination.
Why it matters
If you run social-skills groups, start with quick ToM and pragmatics probes. When these are low, add role-play that practices reading faces and fixing odd wording. Targeting only conversation rules or only executive games may miss the real blocker.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Social difficulties are a key aspect of autism, but the intervening factors are still poorly understood. This study had two objectives: to compare the profile of ToM skills, executive functioning (EF), and pragmatic competence (PC) of children with high-functioning autism (HFA) and children with typical development (TD), and analyze their mediator role in social functioning. The participants were 52 children with HFA and 37 children with TD matched on age, intelligence quotient, and expressive vocabulary. Significant differences were found on measures of ToM, both explicit and applied, EF, and PC between children with HFA and TD. Multiple mediation analysis revealed that applied ToM skills and PC mediated the relations between autism symptoms and social functioning. Implications for social cognitive interventions to address these findings are discussed.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2018 · doi:10.1007/s10803-017-3349-0