Theory of Mind Training and Autism Ranking:

Aims and Claims

Aims

The aim of theory of mind training is teach people how to recognise mental states (such as thoughts, beliefs and emotions) in themselves and in other people.  Some people think that this can lead to improvements in other areas, such as social communication and social interaction. 

For example, Fletcher-Watson et al (2014) stated “The ToM model of autism suggests that the social and communication difficulties that are characteristic of the syndrome stem from a failure to develop an intact ToM. Certainly there is evidence that ToM is correlated with real-life social skills and symptomatology. Certain ToM precursor skills also have a direct relationship with symptoms. Therefore, training in ToM, or in the precursor or component skills of ToM, should alleviate the social and communication difficulties experienced by individuals with the disorder.”

Claims

There have been various claims made for theory of mind training.  For example,

• Feng et al (2008) reported, “The results showed a functional relationship between the intervention and the participant's skill mastery. Specifically, the participant's appropriate social interactions increased substantially across time and settings with similar improvements in the ToM test scores.“
• Gevers et al (2006) reported, “The children showed significant progress on the subdomains perception/imitation, first order belief, pretense, and understanding of humor. Parents reported significant progress in adaptive behaviour on the Socialization subdomains interpersonal relationships, play/leisure and social skills.”
• Rice et al (2015) reported, “Results demonstrated that participants who received the intervention improved their affect recognition and mentalizing skills, as well as their social skills. These findings suggest that, by targeting face-processing skills, computer-based interventions may produce changes in broader cognitive and social-skills domains in a cost- and time-efficient manner.”

Updated

17 Jun 2022

Last Review

01 Mar 2016

Next Review

01 Oct 2022