Assessing theory of mind in school-aged persons with autism and typical peers

This study examined the use of the Roberts-2 as a potential measure of Theory of Mind in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Children both with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder were administered the Roberts-2 and the NEPSY-2 Theory of Mind subtest. The performance of children diagnosed with ASD on the Roberts-2 was compared to their performance on the NEPSY-2 to evaluate its ability to detect Theory of Mind deficits. The relationship between these two scores was found to be nonsignificant, suggesting that the Roberts-2 is not a valid measure of Theory of Mind. The performances of the clinical (e.g., diagnosed with ASD) and comparison (e.g., neurotypical) groups on the Roberts-2 were compared to evaluate the presence of any significant difference between the groups on this measure. No significant difference in performance was found between the clinical and comparison groups, suggesting that the Roberts-2 is not able to differentiate children with ASD from those without.