Grammar and theory of mind in autism

Abstract

The ability to attribute mental states to others and to reason on the basis of this knowledge is referred to as Theory of Mind (ToM) and is known to be impaired in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Recent work has identified links between ToM and language skills in this population, and the aim of the current contribution is to explore these links more closely. We report the findings of three studies experimentally investigating the relationship in ASD between (1) first person accusative pronoun mastery and ToM (2) complementation, executive functions and ToM, as well as (3) complementation and ToM when the ToM task is nonverbal. Results show that pronominal mastery correlates with ToM performance; that complementation, unlike EF, correlates with ToM performance; and that the complement-ToM correlation persists even when the ToM task is itself nonverbal. These findings provide novel empirical support for the view that specific grammatical skills, including mastery of sentential complements and pronouns, are closely linked to ToM abilities in ASD.