ASC occurs in individuals who, DSM-5 (2013), are assessed using two criteria:
- difficulties with the social and communication domain
- difficulties due to a restricted repetitive interest and behaviour domain.
The latter category could also be considered as being ‘extremely single-minded’ and/or having ‘deeply focused attention’, (Belmonte, 2000; Dern, 2008; Harmon, 2010; Lawson, 2000; Lawson, 2011; Murray, 1992; Murray, Lesser & Lawson, 2005 . As well as the above, ASC individuals may have sensory dysphoria and specific characteristics peculiar to them such as language issues, cognition difficulties, motor and movement issues and/or other specifiers. Symptoms must be present in early childhood or occur when demand exceeds capacity and must lead to impairment.
This paper suggests, due to the above, children with ASC have difficulties with their understanding of (among other things): what’s here, what’s now, what is permanent, and so on. It explores how this might impact upon the development of object permanence.
OP implies that, at a certain age, a child’s sensory and motor contributions to to their cognitive understanding enables them to appreciate that an object can still be present and available (permanent) even when it can’t be seen (e.g., lying beside you but hidden beneath a blanket) (Bailargeon, and DeVos, (1991); Bjorne, 2007). This awareness occurs in neurotypical (non-autistic) infants between the ages of 4 and 8 months (McLeod, 2010. Before this:
‘When they are very young babies they don’t give it a second thought when their mum and dad walk away from them. By five or six months old, though, babies will often fuss and cry when their parents attempt to leave them, believing that they have disappeared. It can take a few more months for them to understand that while they may not be able to see their mum, she still exists. This ability is called ‘object permanence’ (Grace, 2012. p.1).
Whether the person, object or event is in view or hidden from view, ASC individuals may not discern the fuller context of OP. For example, two girls with ASC (a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old) might know that their drink bottles are in their lunch bag, even when they can’t see them, BUT, they don’t seem to know that Mummy (or some other person/thing/event) is still there (or occurring), just not within their view.
We propose that this is due to a lack of “big picture” thinking which requires a full range of cognitive and sensorimotor skills to work synchronously within the brain, to determine, “where am I?” and “where is it?” especially in regards to object permanence and generalization.
A change in the infant’s neurocognitive abilities (including sensory/motor connections) had to take place in order for the child to understand that the parent was still present. However, in ASC, when considering the sensory and motor connections needed for the broader more generalized understanding of OP, of OP, this process of cognitive development requires the infant to hold two (or more) concepts simultaneously: the feeling state and possible various reality states (e.g., I’m sad because Mummy left me, but she is only in the garden and she is coming back inside soon. She only left for a short time). This type of reasoning is very difficult to do for ASC children, who find shifting attention no easy task and who have a tough time reading social situations (Klin, et al. 2003).
OP is the result of: knowing (via a variety of connecting states) that an object still exists, even if it is hidden. It requires the ability to form a mental representation (i.e., a schema: See, Young, Klosko & Weishaar (2003, of the object/event/person and so on.
This paper has attempted to explore the possibility that ASC children do not lack theory of mind, which suggests that ASC individuals lack empathy towards others, but instead lack generalization and object permanence which makes it difficult for them to organize and manage their thoughts and emotions outside of the schemas that they have already developed. The authors of this paper believe that when interested and connected, ASC children can be deeply empathetic. The remedy for developing object permanence and generalizing concrete and abstract concepts for ASC children is to focus our efforts on their interests. Creating the same scenario in varying environments will help to establish object permanence and promote generalization. Incorporating the ASC child’s interest with novel events will stimulate the attention that is needed for learning to take place.
This paper suggests that some of the stress and anxiety in the autism population may actually be due to delayed object permanence (OP) (knowing something may still exist even if it is out of sight), which can appear as poor ToM. This delay in establishing OP is governed by single focused attention.
Repetitive, single focused interests and behaviour in ASD have more to do with how attention is processed and less to do with lacking in ‘theory of mind’. Poor OP has a big role to play in many of the situations previously outlined. Some may argue that not being able to put oneself into someone else’s shoes (metaphorically) denotes selfishness and egocentricity. Indeed, the term “autism” suggests “self” but, what if this was because attention is grouped in one place at any one time, rather than divided between “self” and “other”, thus missing the bigger picture? What if this difficulty has more to do with issues in shifting attention and what if we could mediate this through building connections via interest? If the research shows that ASD individuals display a difference in their ability to attend, then we should be exploring ways to assist ASD individuals to enhance their attention; this is another factor that dictates to the patterns, characteristics, and behaviours seen in ASD, that are often not understood in the NT population.
