The relation between theory of mind and executive functions in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
BACKGROUND
Children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) are faced with a range of physical, cognitive, behavioral, and/or learning deficits, as well as poor executive functioning and social skills. Theory of mind (ToM) is the ability to understand that one's own perspective may differ from the perspective of another individual. ToM develops around age 4 and is correlated with performance on executive functioning tasks.


OBJECTIVE
The goals of this study were to examine ToM performance in young children with FASD, how age was related to ToM performance, and whether ToM abilities were related to underlying executive function difficulties.


METHODS
Fifty-three children (aged 4 to 8 years) participated: 25 children with FASD and 28 control children. All children were tested on measures of ToM, executive functioning, and receptive vocabulary.


RESULTS
More children in the FASD group (44%) failed one or both ToM measures than in the control group (25%). Older children with FASD performed worse on ToM than younger children, but this was not the case for the control group. For the FASD group, ToM performance was correlated with a measure of inhibition, but for the control group, ToM was correlated with visual-spatial working memory.


CONCLUSIONS
Children with FASD have difficulty on ToM tasks, and this difficulty may be related to underlying deficits in inhibition.
Rasmussen
Carmen
C
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. carmen@ualberta.ca
Wyper
Katy
K
Talwar
Victoria
V
D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D063647:Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011247:Pregnancy