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SUMMARY:Social Attention and Social Cognitive Development in Children with
  Autism - Dr Susan Leekam\, Department of Psychology\, University of Durha
 m
DTSTART:20070125T130000Z
DTEND:20070125T140000Z
UID:TALK6359@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Rosie Ensor
DESCRIPTION:Two decades of research on theory of mind difficulties support
  the view that the social cognitive impairment is a crucially important fe
 ature of autism. While this impairment was originally defined in terms of 
 a ‘representational’ theory of mind\, it is now described more broadly
  and also refers to social-attentional skills such as gaze perception\, ga
 ze-following and emotion perception.  In this paper I look at the conseque
 nces of adopting this broader concept of ‘social understanding’ when w
 e are trying to understand the problems of children with autism. Our own r
 esearch suggests that if the aim is to understand the developmental origin
  of social attention and how this contributes to later higher-level social
  cognitive skills\, then it is important to make a detailed analysis of th
 ese different skills and the extent to which their relationship is mediate
 d by other skills such as language. I present evidence from a series of st
 udies showing developmental changes in social-attentional ability in young
  children with autism. This contrasts with evidence that competence in soc
 ial attention has already been reached by older children and adolescents o
 f social attention.  These findings\, together with other research on sens
 ory abnormalities in autism\, suggests that we may need to look more close
 ly at the impact of sensory-perceptual difficulties of all kinds (both soc
 ial and non-social) early in life. These difficulties may affect social-in
 teractional learning and the ability to acquire certain kinds of symbol kn
 owledge. These findings are discussed within the framework of recent socia
 l orienting and social cognitive accounts of typical and atypical developm
 ent.
LOCATION:Seminar Room\, Social and Political Science
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