Lecture 9 - Neurodivergence in development and autism

what are developmental conditions/differences?

condition manifesting before adulthood that altered typical development

these can include:

• motor, cognitive, socio-emotional

• one (specific) or more (pervasive) of these areas affected

• can manifest in delay or deficit or difference

causes of developmental conditions

• chromosomal abnormalities - genetic mutations such as down sydrome

• prenantal factors (damage in the womb) which can cause cerebral palsy for example

• unknown combo such as genetic and environmental etc

autism

developmental disorder characterized by differences in social interaction, communication and behaviour. there is varying severity and 3x more men/boys are diagnosed than women and girls.

DSM-5 criteria includes:

• deficits in social communication and social interaction

• nonverbal communicative behaviours

• deficits in developing and maintaining relationships

• repetitive speech, motor movements

• fixated interests

• hyper or hypo-reactivity to sensory input

causes of autism

hereditary component - twin studies and family studies

structural differences in the brain between autistic and non-autistic people

however to do there is no clear genetic neurological explanation

problems with diagnosing autism

it is diagnosed with behavioral criteria and some signs appear early like 12-18 months but only around 3+ years is when they are commonly diagnosed, which is when people typically socially interact more often and speak

it is a very complex condition to consider where individuals experience it in many different ways and areas

‘traditional’ theories of autism

many theories attempt to explain differences such as:

• executive function - explains repetitive behaviors and impulsive control

• weak central coherence - the tendency to process incoming info globally (focus more on tiny details)

• theory of mind deficit - limits effective social understanding and interpret behaviour of others, difficult to communicate

Sally-Anne task - theory of mind (Baron-Cohen et al 1985)

Sally has a basket, and Anne has a box. Sally has a marble, puts it in her box, and then leaves the room. Anne then takes the marble out of the basket and puts it in her box. When Sally comes back and wants to play with her marble, where does she look for it?

autism with mental age of 4

typically developed children aged 4

down syndrome with mental age larger than 4

• they found that 80% of typically developed children and down syndrome solved it

• only 20% of the autistic group solved it

limitations of the theory of mind hypothesis

not all children fail these tasks

• autistic children sometimes perform at typically developed levels

• challenge the universality of theory of mine deficits

strange stories task

more natural, complex challenges than false belief tasks

participants read short story and are asked why a character says something they don’t mean literally (white lie, pretending, joking)

even those who passed the second-order belief tasks were impaired suggesting they do rely on different mechanisms that are very cognitive-dependent which cannot develop till older ages - therefore now when they do an age-appropriate task, they cannot pass it

reading the mind through the eyes (Baron-Cohen et al)

they had participants infer the mental state of images of people eyes

this was designed to address theory of mind abilities beyond those of a 6 year old

choose between correct emotion and incorrect emotions

• they found that autistic group significantly impaired compared to typically developed group and Tourette syndrome group

• however, is it measuring theory of mind? it has been criticised by autistic individuals

failures of specificity and universality

many non-autistic individuals fail these tasks

not all autistic participants fail these tasks

theory of mind tasks rely heavily on spoken language

longitudinal studies suggest that vocabulary predicts performance on false belief tasks more than age

double-empathy problem

explains differences:

Milton (2012) the idea that autistic and non-autistic people have different social communication styles

moving forward

acknowledging biases and impacts on autistic people

• particularly theory of mind research has been dehumanizing

• perspectives of autistic people rarely taken into account

acknowledging different expressions of social behaviour

• fail to read minds of autistic people correctly

acknowledging the impact these perceptions can have on development

• clinical practice

• parent-child interactions

• self-esteem and well-being