Smit Lidy, Knoors Harry, Rabeling-Keus Inge, Verhoeven Ludo, Vissers Constance
Royal Dutch Kentalis, Sint-Michielsgestel, Netherlands.
Behavioral Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, Netherlands.
Front Psychol. 2022 Apr 25;13:761434. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.761434. eCollection 2022.
We tested if the newly designed ToMotion task reflects a single construct and if the atypical groups differ in their performance compared to typically developing peers. Furthermore, we were interested if ToMotion maps a developmental sequence in a Theory of Mind (ToM) performance as exemplified by increasing difficulty of the questions asked in every item. The sample consisted of 13 adolescents that have been diagnosed with a developmental language disorder (DLD) and 14 adolescents that are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). All of these adolescents were in special schools for secondary vocational education. The control group existed of 34 typical developing adolescents (TD) who were in regular intermediate vocational education, ranging from level 2 to 4. The ToMotion, available in a spoken Dutch version and in a version in Sign Language of the Netherlands (SLN), was used to map ToM abilities. An attempt has been made to fill the gap of missing studies of ToM in adolescents by developing a new measuring instrument. In conclusion, assessing ToM with the ToMotion results in a picture that DHH adolescents score lower than TD peers. However, their scores are as consistent as those of the TD peers. The picture of DLD adolescents is the reverse. They show no differences in ToM scores, but seem to be somewhat more inconsistent compared to TD peers. We provide a discussion on those results and its implications for future research. What this paper adds? The current study introduces a new visual Theory of Mind (ToM) task, ToMotion, designed specifically to assess ToM in adolescents in an ecologically valid way and adapted to the needs of adolescents with language and communication difficulties.
我们测试了新设计的ToMotion任务是否反映单一结构，以及与发育正常的同龄人相比，非典型群体在任务表现上是否存在差异。此外，我们还关注ToMotion是否如每个项目中所提问题难度递增所体现的那样，在心理理论（ToM）表现中映射出一个发展序列。样本包括13名被诊断患有发育性语言障碍（DLD）的青少年和14名失聪或听力障碍（DHH）的青少年。所有这些青少年都在中等职业教育特殊学校就读。对照组由34名发育正常的青少年（TD）组成，他们接受常规中等职业教育，水平从2级到4级。ToMotion有荷兰语口语版和荷兰手语（SLN）版，用于映射ToM能力。通过开发一种新的测量工具，试图填补青少年ToM缺失研究的空白。总之，用ToMotion评估ToM的结果显示，DHH青少年的得分低于TD同龄人。然而，他们的得分与TD同龄人的得分一样稳定。DLD青少年的情况则相反。他们在ToM得分上没有差异，但与TD同龄人相比似乎有些不太稳定。我们对这些结果及其对未来研究的意义进行了讨论。本文补充了什么内容？当前研究引入了一种新的视觉心理理论（ToM）任务ToMotion，专门设计用于以生态有效方式评估青少年的ToM，并适应有语言和沟通困难青少年的需求。
