ToM & ASD: The interconnection of Theory of Mind with the social-emotional, cognitive development of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The use of ICTs as an alternative form of intervention in ASD

Abstract

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a complex, heterogeneous disorder that affects perception, information processing, social interaction, verbal, and nonverbal communication, and social, and cognitive behavior. Theory of Mind concerns the observation, understanding of mental states, as well as the interpretation of the behaviors that result from them. The present paper focuses on the interconnection of Mind Theory with the social-emotional, and cognitive development of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The research findings give prominence to the existence of an interaction between the Theory of Mind and the function of the individual’s social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Therefore, the limited development of Mind Theory observed in children with autism is associated with deficits in their social, cognitive, and metacognitive mechanisms. As a result, the focused holistic approach to their weaknesses in combination with the use of ICTs is a promising, alternative form of therapeutic approach.

Theory of Mind in relation to Metacognition and ICTs. A metacognitive approach to ToM

“…Research indicates the existence of an interaction between Theory of Mind and the functioning of the individual's social, emotional, cognitive skills and metacognitive process, with ToM being developmental prior to metacognition. However, it is not entirely clear which of the two mechanisms underlies the other (Bamicha, & Drigas, 2022b;Kim, 2020? Misailidi, 2010.…”

PoM & ToM - Harnessing the Power of Mind in Theory of Mind by shaping beneficial mental states in Preschoolers and the ICT’s role

“…Concluding, it's necessary to refer that the combination of ICTs with theories and models of metacognition, mindfulness, meditation, and emotional intelligence cultivation accelerates and improves more over the educational, productive, and decision-making practices and results as well as the mental abilities and their power (Drigas et al, , 2015(Drigas et al, , 2018(Drigas et al, , 2019(Drigas et al, , 2020(Drigas et al, , 2022Kokkalia et al, 2016a, b;| Pappas et al, , 2016| Pappas et al, , 2018Papoutsi et al, 2016Papoutsi et al, , 2017Papoutsi et al, , 2018Papoutsi et al, , 2021Karyotaki et al, 2015Karyotaki et al, , 2016Karyotaki et al, , 2022Drigas & Karyotaki, 2019a,b,c;Chaidi et al, 2020aChaidi et al, ,b, 2021Chaidi et al, ,2022aMitsea et al, 2020Angelopoulou et al, 2021;Tourimpampa et al, 2018;Kapsi et al, 2020;Galitskaya et al, 2021;Bakola et al, 2020;Bamicha et al, 2022b). Finally, Driga et al, 2019a, b;Stavridou et al, 2021 andZavitzanou et al, 2021 suggest Research, Society andDevelopment, v. 12, n. 5, e13212541590, 2023 (CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v12i5.41590 that various environmental and dietary factors can act as inhibitors or facilitators of the improvement of mental abilities and strengths.…”

Consciousness influences in ToM and Metacognition functioning - An artificial intelligence perspective

“…Although a robot may act ethically without AI, the ability to predict the intentions of others will potentially enhance the scope of its ethical responses. Furthermore, it provides an opportunity to expand on the training of human social skills (Winfield, 2018;Bamicha & Drigas, 2022b). Rabinowitz et al (2018) argue this may be accomplished by building a ToM neural network, or ToM-net, that uses meta-learning to build models of the agents it meets based on watching their behavior.…”