Understanding Atypical Emotions Among Children with Autism

By Rieffe, C., Terwogt, M.M, and Stockmann, L., (2000), Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol. 30, No. 3.

Children with autism are said to be poor mind readers: They have a limited understanding of the role that mental states play in determining emotions and behaviour. In this research, 23 high-functioning children from the autistic spectrum (M age 9 years 3 months), 42 6-year-old controls, and 43 10-year-old controls were presented with six emotion-evoking stories and they were asked to explain protagonists’ typical and atypical emotions. In the case of typical emotions, as expected on the basis of the mindblind hypothesis, children from the autistic spectrum gave few mental state explanations, referring to fewer than even the 6-year-old control group. However, in the case of atypical emotions, the autistic group performed as well as the 10-year-old controls.

It is argued that the mind-reading capacity of high-functioning children from the autistic spectrum might be basically intact; unused in everyday circumstances but not necessarily defective.

Mindblindness implies that children live in a world in which mental activities, such as dreaming, hoping, thinking, and wanting, are not recognised and play no role. Consequently, they also lack the ability to attribute mental states to others.

Twenty-three children in residential care with a pervasive disorder from the autistic spectrum participated in this study. Based on the DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) criteria, the group consisted of 2 children with autism, 3 with the Asperger syndrome, and 18 children were diagnosed with PDDNOS. Of these 18 children, 6 were diagnosed with MCDD.

Earlier findings showed that children form the autistic spectrum sometimes explain other people’s emotions in terms of desires but rarely in terms of beliefs. Our research confirms this finding with regard to typical emotions, but not with regard to atypical emotions. In the case of typical emotions (happiness on receiving a present), our autistic participants with a mean age of 9 years attributed even fewer mental states (desires and beliefs) than a much younger control group of 6-year-olds. However, in the case of atypical emotions (e.g., anger on receiving a present), the clinical group performed as well as a 10-year-old control group of normally developing children.

Overall, we may conclude that our data demonstrate that children from the autistic spectrum do have a mind reading capacity, but they simply do not apply this spontaneously to the same extent as normally developing children.

The question is why, if they have the capacity to mind read, children from the autistic spectrum, hardly seems to apply this capacity. Do they not understand spontaneously that mind reading can help them in their contact with others in everyday life? Or do they not appreciate the advantage of mind reading? When we observe high-functioning children from the autistic spectrum in their daily life, many (but not all) appeared to lack curiousity for others, unless they have a direct need to obtain something from another person.

The idea that the level of stress plays a crucial role in their daily functioning would also explain, for example, why many children with autism - also high-functioning children- can be observed to intensify their repetitive behaviour or self-stimulation and close off their interactions with others even more in times of pressure. It seems as if the extent to which they tolerate external information is related to the level of tranquillity of the situation. The hypothesis that children from the autistic spectrum only have room to mind read when their level of stress is reduced is recognisable for many of us: Don’t most people totally lose their interest in others the moment they are severely bothered by their own problems?