comparison of cognitive skills and social emotional skills on promoting the theory of mind in autistic children

Abstract

The present study was a cross-sectional and applied research comparing the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation and social emotional skills on the development of theory of mind in autistic children. The quasi-experimental method was pre-test and post-test with control group. From 45 students introduced to a school and MITA in (2019-2020) by completing a questionnaire of ASSQ in a community of 30 people in the sample group of 30 people was replaced by stratified random sampling in two training groups and one control group. The first group was trained with intelligent facial cognitive rehabilitation program and the second group was trained with emotional and social skills. The third group did not receive training. Statistical results of MANCOVA and Scheffe post hoc test showed that the level of mind theory in children with autism increased after applying only cognitive rehabilitation and both groups had higher mean levels of total mind theory than the control group. Experimental groups 1 had higher mean than level 1 and 2 and total mind theory than the control group and the difference between the means was significant at the level of 0.05. The second experimental group had a higher mean at level 3 than the control group and the difference in means was significant at the level of 0.05. It can be concluded that cognitive rehabilitation is a suitable intervention method for educators and therapists of autistic children to promote the theory of mind.

Keywords

• autism
• rehabilitation
• social emotional skills
• mind theory