Social Cognition in Children With Non-specific Intellectual Disabilities: An Exploratory Study.

Nathalie Nader-Grosbois,Poline Simon,Emilie Jacobs

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01884

Abstract

Social cognitive abilities – notably, Theory of Mind (ToM) and social information processing (SIP) – are key skills for the development of social competence and adjustment. By understanding affective and cognitive mental states and processing social information correctly, children will be able to enact prosocial behaviors, to interact with peers and adults adaptively, and to be socially included. As social adjustment and inclusion are major issues for children with intellectual disabilities (IDs), the present study aimed to explore their social cognitive profile by combining cluster analysis of both ToM and SIP competence, and to investigate the structure of relations between these skills in children with IDs. Seventy-eight elementary school children with non-specific IDs were recruited. They had a chronological age ranging from 4 years and 8 months to 12 years and 6 months and presented a preschool developmental age. Performance-based measures were administered to assess ToM and SIP abilities. Questionnaires were completed by the children’s parents to evaluate the children’s social competence and adjustment and their risk of developing externalizing or internalizing behaviors. Exploratory analysis highlighted strengths and weaknesses in the social cognitive profiles of these children with IDs. It also emphasized that the understanding of affective and cognitive mental states was used differently when facing appropriate vs. inappropriate social behaviors. The present study leads to a better understanding of the socio-emotional profile of children with IDs and offers some suggestions on how to implement effective interventions.

Highlights

In typically developing children, theoretical conceptions and developmental studies emphasize that the preschool period, ranging from 3 to 6 years, corresponds to a “critical” period of development of emotional and social abilities (Vygotsky, 1978; Perner, 1991; Wellman, 1991; Wellman et al, 2001; Wellman and Liu, 2004; Astington and Baird, 2005; Astington and Edward, 2010)
Social cognition in children with intellectual disabilities (IDs) has been explored according to either a developmental approach through the concept of Theory of Mind (ToM) or a functional view based on the social information processing (SIP) model
No T-scores for global scales and specific dimensions were lower than the cutoff (38). This demonstrated that these children with IDs had competence corresponding to those of a representative sample matched for developmental age

Summary

Introduction

Theoretical conceptions and developmental studies emphasize that the preschool period, ranging from 3 to 6 years, corresponds to a “critical” period of development of emotional and social abilities (Vygotsky, 1978; Perner, 1991; Wellman, 1991; Wellman et al, 2001; Wellman and Liu, 2004; Astington and Baird, 2005; Astington and Edward, 2010). A majority of children with IDs face difficulties in social cognition and perform at a lower level in comparison with typically developing children with the same chronological or developmental age (Leffert and Siperstein, 2002). Depending on whether subjects are matched for developmental or chronological age, studies have shown that there is either a deficit or a delay in social cognitive development in children with IDs, in comparison with typically developing children. These comparisons determine whether impairments are related to a child’s specific disorder or to developmental difficulties (Skwerer, 2017). By contrast with previous studies investigating specific aspects of either ToM or SIP, our study examined social cognitive profiles according to both approaches

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