Pretend play, social cognitive abilities, and dissociative tendencies in preschoolers

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Pears ◽  
Kathryn Becker
2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Perren ◽  
Fabio Sticca ◽  
Barbara Weiss-Hanselmann ◽  
Carine Burkhardt Bossi

Social pretend play may have a positive impact on children’s social development because it involves positive peer interactions and challenges their social-cognitive abilities. The current study aimed to investigate whether variations in play tutors’ active support and play management are associated with variations in children’s social pretend play level in the context of a pretend play tutoring intervention. Moreover, the moderating role of children’s social skills (cooperative behaviour and sociability) was examined. In total, 50 children from eight playgroups participated in the study (50% females, mean age at T1 = 46.6 months, SD = 4.3). Six play tutoring sessions took place during normal playgroup sessions (30–40 minutes each). Both the play tutors’ active support and play management and the children’s social pretend play were videotaped and rated for each 10-minute interval. Furthermore, teachers rated children’s social skills before the intervention. The study showed that active support – but not play management – was positively associated with children’s social pretend play level. Furthermore, children’s sociability positively predicted children’s social pretend play level during the intervention and also intensified the positive effect of active support on children’s social pretend play level. In contrast, children’s cooperative behaviour was not significantly associated with their social pretend play level. These results suggest that play tutoring in a group setting needs to be tailored to children’s needs and should actively aim to include withdrawn children, so that they can also profit more strongly from the intervention.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 314-325
Author(s):  
Kimberly F. Frazier ◽  
Jessica Collier ◽  
Rachel Glade

Background The aim of this study was to determine the clinical efficacy of combining self-management strategies and a social thinking approach to address the social performance and executive function of an adolescent female with autism spectrum disorder. Method This research examined the effects of a social knowledge training program, “Think Social,” as well as strategies to improve higher order cognitive abilities. Results and Conclusion Although quantitative improvement was not found, several qualitative gains in behavior were noted for the participants of this study, suggesting a benefit from using structured environmental cues of self-management strategies, as well as improved social understanding through social cognitive training.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 147470492095444
Author(s):  
Liana S. E. Hone ◽  
John E. Scofield ◽  
Bruce D. Bartholow ◽  
David C. Geary

Evolutionary theory suggests that commonly found sex differences are largest in healthy populations and smaller in populations that have been exposed to stressors. We tested this idea in the context of men’s typical advantage (vs. women) in visuospatial abilities (e.g., mental rotation) and women’s typical advantage (vs. men) in social-cognitive (e.g., facial-expression decoding) abilities, as related to frequent binge drinking. Four hundred nineteen undergraduates classified as frequent or infrequent binge drinkers were assessed in these domains. Trial-level multilevel models were used to test a priori Sex × Group (binge drinking) interactions for visuospatial and social-cognitive tasks. Among infrequent binge drinkers, men’s typical advantage in visuospatial abilities and women’s typical advantage in social-cognitive abilities was confirmed. Among frequent binge drinkers, men’s advantage was reduced for one visuospatial task (Δ d = 0.29) and eliminated for another (Δ d = 0.75), and women’s advantage on the social-cognitive task was eliminated (Δ d = 0.12). Males who frequently engaged in extreme binges had exaggerated deficits on one of the visuospatial tasks, as did their female counterparts on the social-cognitive task. The results suggest sex-specific vulnerabilities associated with recent, frequent binge drinking, and support an evolutionary approach to the study of these vulnerabilities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-65
Author(s):  
Svetlana Valerevna Zorina ◽  
◽  
Galina Sergeevna Leshina ◽  

PLoS ONE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. e0131604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carla M. Startin ◽  
Chiara Fiorentini ◽  
Michelle de Haan ◽  
David H. Skuse

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Valuch ◽  
Louisa Kulke

Integration of prior experience and contextual information can help to resolve perceptually ambiguous situations and might support the ability to understand other peoples’ thoughts and intentions, called Theory of Mind. We studied whether the readiness to incorporate contextual information for resolving binocular rivalry is positively associated with Theory-of-Mind-related social cognitive abilities. In children (12 to 13 years) and adults (18 to 25 years), a predictive temporal context reliably modulated the onset of binocular rivalry to a similar degree. In contrast, adult participants scored better on measures of Theory of Mind compared to children. We observed considerable interindividual differences regarding the influence of a predictive context on binocular rivalry, which were associated with differences in sensory eye dominance. The absence of a positive association between predictive effects on perception and Theory of Mind performance suggests that predictive effects on binocular rivalry and higher-level Theory-of-Mind-related abilities stem from different neurocognitive mechanisms. We conclude that the influence of predictive contextual information on basic visual processes is fully developed at an earlier age, whereas social cognitive skills continue to evolve from adolescence to adulthood.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhideeta Jalal ◽  
Aarti Nair ◽  
Amy Lin ◽  
Ariel Eckfeld ◽  
Leila Kushan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is a common recurrent neurogenetic condition associated with elevated risk for developmental neuropsychiatric disorders and intellectual disability. Children and adults with 22q11DS often exhibit marked social impairment as well as neurocognitive deficits, and have elevated rates of both autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and psychosis. However, the relationship between the basic processes of social cognition and cognitive ability has not been well studied in 22q11DS. Here, we examined differences in social cognition in 22q11DS, relative to multiple groups of idiopathic neuropsychiatric disorders, and typically developing healthy controls (HC). Additionally, we examined differences in intellectual functioning and its relationship to social cognitive abilities. Finally, we examined the relationship between social cognitive abilities and real-world social behavior. Methods: We examined social cognition and intellectual functioning in 273 participants (mean age = 17.74+/-5.18% female = 44.3%): 50 with 22q11DS, 49 youth with first episode psychosis (FEP), 48 at clinical high-risk (CHR) for psychosis, 24 participants with ASD, and 102 HC. Social cognition was assessed using The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT), while reciprocal social behavior was assessed via parent/caregiver ratings on the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). Participants were also administered the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, 2 nd edition (WASI-II) to assess intellectual functioning. Results: The 22q11DS group exhibited significantly lower social cognitive abilities compared to all other groups, even after controlling for intellectual functioning. Significant positive correlations were found between social cognition, as measured by the TASIT, and IQ across groups. In contrast, no significant relationships were found between TASIT and real-world social behavior (SRS) for any group. Conclusions: Our findings indicate social cognitive deficits are more prominent in 22q11DS than idiopathic neuropsychiatric conditions across the age range, even after adjusting for global intellectual function. These results contribute to our understanding of the intellectual and social vulnerabilities of 22q11DS in comparison to idiopathic neuropsychiatric disorders. Our findings of robust associations between intellectual ability and social cognition emphasizes the importance of accounting for neurocognitive deficits in social skills interventions and tailoring these existing treatment models for 22q11DS and other populations with intellectual impairment.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhideeta Jalal ◽  
Aarti Nair ◽  
Amy Lin ◽  
Ariel Eckfeld ◽  
Leila Kushan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is a common recurrent neurogenetic condition associated with elevated risk for developmental neuropsychiatric disorders and intellectual disability. Children and adults with 22q11DS often exhibit marked social impairment as well as neurocognitive deficits, and have elevated rates of both autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and psychosis. However, the relationship between the basic processes of social cognition and cognitive ability has not been well studied in 22q11DS. Here, we examined differences in social cognition in 22q11DS, relative to multiple groups of idiopathic neuropsychiatric disorders, and typically developing healthy controls (HC). Additionally, we examined differences in intellectual functioning and its relationship to social cognitive abilities. Finally, we examined the relationship between social cognitive abilities and real-world social behavior. Methods We examined social cognition and intellectual functioning in 306 participants (mean age = 16.63+/-4.59; % female = 44.8%): sixty-eight with 22q11DS, 49 youth with first episode psychosis (FEP), 48 at clinical high-risk (CHR) for psychosis, 24 participants with ASD, and 117 HC. Social cognition was assessed using The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT), while reciprocal social behavior was assessed via parent/caregiver ratings on the Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS). Participants were also administered the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence, 2 nd edition (WASI-II) to assess intellectual functioning. Results The 22q11DS group exhibited significantly lower social cognitive abilities compared to all other groups, even after controlling for intellectual functioning. Significant positive correlations were found between social cognition, as measured by the TASIT, and IQ across groups. In contrast, no significant relationships were found between TASIT and real-world social behavior (SRS) for any group. Conclusions Our findings indicate social cognitive deficits are more prominent in 22q11DS than idiopathic neuropsychiatric conditions across the age range, even after adjusting for global intellectual function. These results contribute to our understanding of the intellectual and social vulnerabilities of 22q11DS in comparison to idiopathic neuropsychiatric disorders. Our findings of robust associations between intellectual ability and social cognition emphasizes the importance of accounting for neurocognitive deficits in social skills interventions and tailoring these existing treatment models for 22q11DS and other populations with intellectual impairment.


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