Social Perceptions and Autism: How are you feeling today?

When you see someone smiling, you know it means that they are happy; and when you see someone crying, you know they are sad. However, there are some people who are not able to distinguish these emotions as easily. Children diagnosed with Autism have difficulty with certain aspects of social perception. One aspect in particular is the nonverbal communication of emotion.

Many people attribute this difficulty of social perception in Autistic children to the "Theory of Mind". According to Wikipedia, the Theory of Mind is the "ability to attribute mental states—beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc.—to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one's own". Individuals diagnosed with Autism are said to lack or have difficulties with this Theory of Mind process. Through studying behaviors of children with Autism in social situations, we can see evidence of this.

In class, we discussed the "scripts" of social situations. Scripts tell us what we should expect from certain social situations. According to a contributor of Yahoo!, children diagnosed with Autism tend to be reluctant to go outside their normal routines. I believe that Autistic children are often reluctant to go out of their routines because they may not have the necessary scripts to anticipate behaviors in different social situations. As a result, children with Autism tend to behave in ways that are consistent with difficulties in expressing emotion, paying attention, and use of language. To demonstrate this, I have provided a video for you. Watch the Youtube video of "Autistic Carter" and notice how he has these difficulties in expressing emotion, use of language, and paying attention.

The behavioral effects of Autism are clear. What can we do about it? Lucky for this kid, there are different ways of educating Autistic children to cope with social perceptions. I have a niece with Autism and she sees a speech therapist once a week. Also, some schools provide special educational instructors to help teach children with Autism. If you are a parent, there are various Internet resources to look into when helping your child cope with these social situations. Yet, you should always talk to a doctor first before diagnosing your child with Autism. Here is another Youtube video clip that promotes how to teach Autistic children about emotions. Don't forget to comment below for any contributions you would like to make to this blog entry.

Sources:

http://voices.yahoo.com/the-social-psychology-autism-2031496.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind