The effect of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) for many children with autism is well established. But there is still not enough knowledge on what factors predicts and affects the outcome for children with autism, and the studies report large individual variation in outcome. Read more…
There is a common understanding that the concept of theory of mind is difficult for children with autism spectrum disorders, and there have for some years been developed different interventions to increase the understanding of the concept and the skills involved and related for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders. In the recent issue of Journal of autism and developmental disorders, Beeger et al have published a randomized controlled trial of a manual based Theroy of mind training package for children with autism spectrum disorders aged 8 – 13.
The results of this group based teaching program indicates that the participants improved their conceptual theory of mind skills, but related skills, empathic and social behavior did not improve. There may be several factors contributing to this result, but the lack of direct training under relevant stimulus conditions and programmed generalization may be some factors. So it would be interesting to se more studies Om theory og mind training conducted within the behavior analytic tradition (this study is not based on behavior analysis) that includes these elements.