Affective and Cognitive Theory of Mind in Children with Down Syndrome: A Brief Report

ABSTRACT

Background Previous literature suggests that children with Down syndrome (DS) have difficulties in cognitive and affective components of Theory of Mind (ToM). However, the nature of the distinction between cognitive and affective ToM has not yet been addressed in depth in this population. Aims This work is aimed at studying the cognitive and affective ToM in children with DS. Methods and Procedures Cognitive ToM tasks (first-order false belief) and affective ToM tasks (Test of Emotion Comprehension) were administered to 30 children with DS (aged from 4 to 12 years) and to 60 typically developing (TD) children (aged from 2 to 12 years). TD children were divided into 2 groups: a Language control group and a Chronological age control group. Results Results suggest that children with DS have difficulty with both the cognitive and affective ToM components, even when compared to the language control group. In contrast to children with typical development, children with DS have a better performance in affective ToM. Conclusions We discuss our results in the light of prior studies describing the difficulties of children with DS in ToM tasks and the role of language in ToM development.