The school adjustment of children is the cornerstone of their development, and has been known to be influenced by a variety of factors. This study investigated the effects of peer relationships, theory of mind (ToM), hot executive function (hot EF), and cognitive ability on young children's school adjustment. Participants were 183 children with a…

Background: Two experiments investigated the contribution of conflict inhibition to pragmatic deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Typical adults' tendency to reuse interlocutors' referential choices (lexical alignment) implicates communicative perspective-taking, which is regulated by conflict inhibition. We examined whether…

Previously, a total of 121 children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) performed an adaptive working memory (WM)-training, an adaptive flexibility-training, or a non-adaptive control (mock)-training. Despite overall improvement, there were minor differences between the adaptive and mock-training conditions. Moreover, dropout was relatively…

Being able to manage reputation is an important social skill, but it is unclear whether autistic children can manage reputation. This study investigated whether 33 autistic children matched to 33 typical children could implicitly or explicitly manage reputation. Further, we examined whether cognitive processes--theory of mind, social motivation,…

Provision of an individually responsive education requires a comprehensive understanding of the inner worlds of learners, such as their feelings and thoughts. However, this is difficult to achieve when learners, such as those with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and cognitive difficulties, have problems with communication. To address this issue,…

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…

In an experimental design, we examined the effects of middle-term training in social information processing (SIP) and in Theory of Mind (ToM) on preschoolers' social cognition and social adjustment. 48 preschoolers took part in a pre-test and post-test session involving cognitive, socio-cognitive and social adjustment (direct and indirect)…

Children with hearing loss often have difficulties in the socio-emotional domain that can be attributed to a significant delay in the development of theory of mind (ToM). The current article describes a workshop aimed at enhancing deaf parents' awareness of the importance of ToM development and enriching parent-child conversations with…

This three-wave longitudinal study explored developmental trajectories for various types of childhood anxiety symptoms (i.e., specific fears, social anxiety, generalized anxiety, and separation anxiety) and examined how these trajectories were associated with several factors thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of anxiety. Parents of a…

This study examined the development of children's reasoning about the afterlife and its relationship with parental afterlife beliefs and testimony. A total of 123 children aged 5, 7, and 10 years were read a story describing the events that led to a person's death. After hearing the story, children were asked questions about the dead agent's…

Empathy is an essential building block for successful interpersonal relationships. Atypical empathic development is implicated in a range of developmental psychopathologies. However, assessment of empathy in children is constrained by a lack of suitable measurement instruments. This article outlines the development of the Kids' Empathic…

Children with Asperger syndrome (AS) have IQ within the normal range but specific impairments in theory of mind, social interaction and communication skills. The majority receive education in mainstream schools and research suggests they are bullied more than typically developing peers. The current study aimed to evaluate factors that predict…