Re: Theory of Mind/, question

[Guest guest]

> Does it

> sound like I did it right? I did not tell her the " right " answer,

I

> just told her it was a puzzle. Should I ask her where Sally would

> look for the marble " first " or should she just be able to get this?

>

From what I understand, the Sally Anne test is just a test to see if

the kids have developed this way of understanding people that they

call Theory of Mind. I think that, if, like my son, they don't get

it right, there are various tools to teach them that way of looking

at things. I get the idea that, instead of just being able to figure

out that particular puzzle, they need to learn general concepts

like: a) the inside of everyone's head is different; and it's

possible to 'put yourself in someone else's shoes' and to guess what

they would think based on what they know.

I don't know how to teach these things. I'm looking forward to

getting that book that I ordered. I'll also keep looking around and

report back on what I find. At the moment I am watching a movie, or

part of a movie, every night with my son and pausing it to talk

about what has just happened and what is going to happen. The latest

development was watching the Jungle Book and Sasha saying of Shirkan

(sp?) " He's pretending to be good. " There is no way he would have

been able to get that a couple of weeks ago, so it seems that giving

lots of examples and talking about it is having some effect. I'm

told that lots of ASD kids do develop Theory of Mind. They just do

it later. What I'm hoping is that I can find a way to make

that " later " a little " sooner " .