Exploring Ideas in Autism

Paper Summary:

A disorder as behaviorally pervasive as autism calls for a search for a core deficit or the root of the difficulties that autistic individuals experience. The paper reviews three of the proposed core deficits--attachment impairment, theory of mind deficits and the "extreme male brain" theory. It also explores the existing evidence for heritability of autism and the current media attention the "autism epidemic".

From the Paper:

"The most current model of autism holds that the core deficit in autism is a lack of "theory of mind". Theory of mind is conceptualized as the ability to understand the mental states of other individuals, including but not limited to the understanding that others think differently than oneself, an awareness of social norms, and a sense of social evaluation (Heery, Keltner, & Capps, 2003). According to Yirmiya, Erel, Shaked, and Solomonica-Levi (1998), theory of mind deficits would be manifested in a child with autism such that the child would have a poor understanding of mental states, and how mental states can affect behavior. As a result, the child would have difficulty interpreting social situations and act inappropriately."

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