Autism and Practice

Nonetheless, there still is controversy about the basic issues in autism, and what causes the problems for children. In this analysis, the intention is to provide some background on the problems that autistic children experience, developing theories, and implications of two contrasting theories for practice.

Part of the controversy surrounding the study of autism involves the diagnosis of autism itself and distinguishing those problems, or difficulties, that are unique to autism, or unique as a cluster of problems creating the autistic condition. For example, there are those who would claim that Donna Williams, who has written extensively about her own experience as an autistic child and adult, does not qualify for that diagnosis. Yet, what she described as her difficulties are problems consistently noted with other autistic children. What are some of these problems?

Autistic children often seem withdrawn and nonresponsive. Before more was known about autism, they were often thought to be deaf because of their lack of response to speech or reaction to noises. They are known for the

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r autism, as well as theories that see autism as the result of a general deficit. One new psychological theory that does not support this reading, however, is the theory of central coherence, which differs from that of executive function in that it is more closely related to cognitive style and does not focus purely on deficits. Let us look more closely at these two models: (a) theory of mind, and (b) central coherence. The classic theory of mind approach contends that the basic problem for autistic individuals, resulting in the triad of impairments, is the failure to mentalise. In general, these individuals are theorized to be lacking in the ability to metarepresent, or to conceive of a theory of mind. They are seen as unable to understand independent mental states in themselves or others and use that understanding to predict or explain actions (Happe, 1994a). Although there is research supporting aspects of the theory of mind conception, there is also countervailing evidence, or evidence suggesting that the theory as formulated is not adequate. For example, Nuyts and DeRoeck (1997) explored issues related to the meta-representational abilities of autistic adults. Their subjects were four high-functioning autistic adults a
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Approximate Word count = 3786
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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