Self-Presentation and the Role of Perspective Taking and Social Motivation in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Eussen et al. (2016) watched kids and teens with autism try to impress a peer. They compared how well they bragged about themselves to typical kids doing the same task.

The team also measured how much each child cared about social approval and how well they could take another person's view.

Elementary-age kids with autism were just as strategic as typical kids. Once they hit adolescence, the same kids fell behind.

Teens who cared less about social approval or who struggled with perspective-taking showed the biggest drop in self-promotion skills.

Peters et al. (2018) say skip isolated perspective-taking drills and teach the skill inside real social activities. M et al. agrees—teens need the social motive turned on first.

Lemons et al. (2015) found no social gaps in kids who lost their autism diagnosis. That looks like a clash, but their teens no longer had ASD. M et al. studied teens who still met criteria, so both papers can be true.

Kinard et al. (2020) peered inside the brain and saw odd reward signals when autistic teens expected social praise. This backs the idea that social motivation—not raw ability—explains the teen slump.

If you run teen social-skills groups, start by lighting the social reward fire. Build in real peer approval—compliment circles, Instagram polls, or peer teaching—before you drill perspective-taking. When teens care about the audience, the bragging and the mind-reading follow.