Insights into theory of mind from deafness and autism

This paper summarizes the results of 11 separate studies of deaf children's performance on standard tests of false belief understanding, the results o f which combine to show that deaf children from hearing families are likely to be delayed in acquiring a theory of mind. indeed, these children genera lly perform no better than autistic individuals of similar mental age. Conv ersational and neurological explanations for deficits in mental state under standing are considered in relation to recent evidence from studies of deaf , autistic, and normally developing children with varied levels of access t o talk about mental states at home with family members during the preschool years.