Theory of Mind Abilities and Comprehension of Mental Terms in Subgroups of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Developmental Language Disorder.
Purpose: This study examined how subgroups of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental language disorder (DLD) perform on theory of mind (ToM) tasks and comprehend mental terms. Method: Eighty Hebrew-speaking children aged 5--6 years were divided into four groups: children with...
| Published in: | Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research Vol. 68; no. 6; pp. 2885 - 2900 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
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American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Jun2025
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=185830434&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 185830434 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 10924388 1SM jtl: Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research issn: 10924388 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jun2025 vid: 68 iid: 6 pid: 42 pub: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association artinfo: ui: 185830434 10.1044/2025_JSLHR-24-00921 ppf: 2885 ppct: 15 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 870KB tig: atl: Theory of Mind Abilities and Comprehension of Mental Terms in Subgroups of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Developmental Language Disorder. aug: au: Hadad, Eden Segal, Osnat affil: Department of Communication Disorders, Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel-Aviv University, Israel su: Task performance Terms & phrases Autism Psychology Language disorders Analysis of variance Children Pearson correlation (Statistics) Data analysis Phonological awareness Kruskal-Wallis Test Descriptive statistics Analysis of covariance Chi-squared test Child development deviations Statistics Asperger's syndrome Data analysis software Thought & thinking Disease complications sug: subj: Task performance Terms & phrases Autism Psychology Language disorders Analysis of variance Children Pearson correlation (Statistics) Data analysis Phonological awareness Kruskal-Wallis Test Descriptive statistics Analysis of covariance Chi-squared test Child development deviations Statistics Asperger's syndrome Data analysis software Thought & thinking Disease complications ab: Purpose: This study examined how subgroups of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental language disorder (DLD) perform on theory of mind (ToM) tasks and comprehend mental terms. Method: Eighty Hebrew-speaking children aged 5--6 years were divided into four groups: children with DLD, ASD and language impairment (ASD-LI), and ASD and typical language abilities (ASD-LN) and typically developing (TD) peers. Language was assessed using the Hebrew Goralnik test. All participants had an average nonverbal IQ (> 85). Comprehension of mental terms, including the factive verb know, the nonfactive verbs think and guess, and the adjective sure, was evaluated contrasting these terms by using 12 paired stimuli organized into three sets. Results: TD children scored highest on the Theory of Mind Task Battery (ToMTB), followed by ASD-LN, ASD-LI, and DLD groups. For factive and nonfactive terms (FNFTs), ASD-LN performed highest, followed by TD, DLD, and ASD-LI. One-way analyses of covariance controlling for nonverbal IQ revealed significant group differences. Pairwise comparisons demonstrated that TD and ASD-LN outperformed ASD-LI and DLD on the ToMTB and FNFTs. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that both nonverbal intelligence and language ability significantly predicted ToM performance. The addition of FNFT comprehension increased the explanatory power of the model. Conclusions: This study underscores differences in ToM and FNFT comprehension across subgroups and highlights similarities between ASD-LI and DLD. These findings emphasize the strong link between language skills and ToM abilities, with FNFT comprehension playing a crucial role in ToM development. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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