At 6's and 7's?

But What Did You Mean?

In the world of education, when we talk about the theory of mind we are referring to the ability to understand other people by attributing beliefs, desires, intentions, emotions, opinions or thoughts to them. These ideas may be different from one's own beliefs, desires, intentions, etc.  Theory of mind is considered to be cognitive perspective-taking where one is trying to respond to an event with an appropriate response verbal or otherwise.

Individuals with the theory of mind deficits have a difficult time seeing phenomena from any other perspective than their own. Individuals who experience a theory of mind deficit have difficulty determining the intentions of others, lack understanding of how their behavior affects others, and have a difficult time with social reciprocity. There are a number of diagnosis that frequently have deficits in theory of mind as part of the overall challenges that a given child may need to remediate. These include but are not necessarily limited to autism spectrum disorder, nonverbal learning disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It is important to evaluate theory of mind in children who have severely delayed speech as well.

 (evaluation and goal specific to the needs of the child)

1. Affect-Based Behavior   If afraid of the water, you will not want to go into the          water.

2. Affective Recognition   Understands the show of emotion and what it means (fear = danger)

3. Appearance Reality  Candy box filled with pencils - what will others think is in the box.

4.  Certainty    Making a 'guess' is not as certain as knowing something.

5.  Counterfactual Reasoning   Understands the hypothetical word "if".  If I have the money, I'll buy a game.

6.  Deception   Understands that people can lie to purposely mislead others.

7.  Empathy   Puts oneself in another's shoes and understands how they feel.

8.  False Belief     Looks for objects where you left them - if moved without your knowledge.

9.  Humor    A major form of reasoning! Uses intuition - a form of decision-making and a clinical sign of well-being.

USES JOKES AS A SOCIAL SKILL - Uses jokes to make others feel good, gain intimacy or buffer stress, show wisdom, laugh at self. Understands schemas (cognitive structure/visualization) of generic or stereotyped objects, situations or behaviors’

GETS A JOKE - one must appreciate the humor more through speedy first impressions rather than logical analysis. Must be able to inhibit the initial mental representation to get the punchline and create a different mental representation that conflicts with the one set up by the joke. Timing signals the listener that a different representation of the punchline is possible. Funny is the subjective experience that comes from the resolution of at least two incongruous schemas. The second schema, often activated at the end, is in a punchline.