Teaching a Deictic Relational Repertoire to Children with Autism

Perspective-taking skills are crucial for successful social interactions and individuals with autism often have great difficulty in this area. Recent research in the area of Relational Frame Theory has developed an analysis of deictic relations, thought to underlie perspective-taking. A few studies have shown that performance on a deictic relations protocol correlates with other measures of perspective taking, and that deictic relations can be learned through operant conditioning procedures. The current study examined the effects of increased deictic relational responding, on Theory of Mind scores, with children with autism. Five children with autism participated in this study, two of whom were designated as control participants. The results suggest that the current form of deictic relational training can be taught to children with autism, but this may not be sufficient to change more generalized perspective-taking skills, as measured by a Theory of Mind assessment.