Megan Critchlow - Psychology
For children to lack a Theory of Mind they essentially lack the ability to understand or
predict others behaviours. For example if an individual were described as “the bees knees”,
an autistic child, even if explained this was a phrase for an extraordinary person, would
struggle to comprehend this. Instead they would continue to literally imagine a bee’s knees.
Developing this explanation to the limitations of mindblindness is a quotation by Kanner
(1943) cited by Baron-Cohen (1995, p.62), describing what he saw when viewing an autistic
child. “When a hand was held out to him so that he could not possibly ignore it, he played
with it briefly as if it were a detached object”. This description accurately fits in with the
Mindblindness theory. The autistic child acknowledges the hand as being present but treats it
like an object, unaware of any intention behind the hands movement. Baron-Cohen and
Bolton (1993) cited by Baron-Cohen (1995, p.62), recorded similar social dysfunction of an
autistic child “he would look at them fleetingly or else not at all” this description accurately
portrays the oblivion as to what being looked at means to an autistic child. The child may
fleetingly look at a person but not take into account any feelings portrayed behind the persons
expression, instead glancing at the person as if they were an object.
Therefore it is clear that the delay of autistic children’s development of a Theory of Mind is a
huge disadvantage to them in social circumstances where they often misconceive actions and
behave inappropriately. This social disadvantage is indicated by the national autistic societies
statistics that over 40% of children with autism have been bullied at school (Batten, A. et al,
2006, cited by The National Autistic society, 2013).
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