Background and aims: Many children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have difficulties in executive functioning (EF) and theory of mind (ToM). These difficulties might be explained by the theory that children's conceptual understanding changes over five stages of word meaning structure, from concrete and context-dependent to abstract and…

This study addresses the question as to what cognitive abilities influence performance on article choice and direct object scrambling in high-functioning Dutch-speaking children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Schaeffer (2016/2018) shows that a group of 27 high-functioning Dutch-speaking children with ASD, aged 5-14, overgenerates the…

This RCT investigated whether the effect of a Theory of Mind (ToM) intervention for children with ASD was moderated by parental education level and employment, family structure, and parental ASD. Children with autism aged 8-13 years (n = 136) were randomized over a waitlist control or treatment condition. At posttest, children in the treatment…

Introduction: Delays in theory of mind (ToM) of children who are congenitally blind have often been attributed to the absence of visual and social experiences. However, these delays could also be partly due to neural factors. In some children, the blindness itself has neural causes (ocular-plus blindness). Children whose blindness has an…

A social skills training (SST) for high-functioning children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) was evaluated in an outpatient setting using a combined between- and within-subject design in which SST and a waiting list condition were compared. According to parents and teachers, the SST produced greater improvement of social skills than the…

It has been argued that children who possess an advanced theory of mind (ToM) are more likely to act prosocially, yet the empirical findings are mixed. To address this issue definitively, a meta-analytic integration of all prior literature that met appropriate inclusion criteria was conducted. In total, 76 studies including 6,432 children between…

This study reports on a new false belief measure in a sample of 124 children and adolescents with or without high functioning autism (HFASD). In the classic paradigm, a participant predicts in which of two discrete locations a deceived protagonist will look for an object. In the current Sandbox task, the object is buried and reburied in a sandbox,…

Despite its importance in social development, social understanding has hardly been studied in high-ability children. This study explores differences in social understanding between children in high-ability and regular classrooms, specifically theory of mind (ToM) and perception accuracy, as well as associations between individual characteristics…