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Assessing Advanced Theory of Mind in Children and Adolescents with High-Functioning Autism: The Spanish Version of the Stories of Everyday Life

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Abstract

Most individuals with autism spectrum disorders often fail in tasks of theory of mind (ToM). However, those with normal intellectual functioning known as high functioning ASD (HF-ASD) sometimes succeed in mentalizing inferences. Some tools have been developed to more accurately test their ToM abilities. The aims of this study were to examine the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of Stories of Everyday Life Test (SEL) in a sample of 29 children and adolescents with HF-ASD and 25 typically developing controls and to compare their performance. The Spanish-SEL demonstrated good internal consistency, strong convergence with clinical severity and another ToM test, and adequate discriminant validity from intellectual capability and age, identifying the condition of 70 % of participants.

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Acknowledgments

This study has been made possible thanks to the Grants from Banco de Instrumentos del Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Salud Mental (BICIBERSAM2010-P13) and Fundació La Marató-TV3 (2009-091510).

Author contributions

Dr. Calvo, Dr. Puig and Dr. Lera-Miguel designed the study; Mrs. Rosa administered the assessment tools to the participants. All four participated in the refinement of the instrument, conducted the statistical analysis and analyzed the data. Prof. Kaland assisted with the process of clarifying doubts about the original instrument. Dr. Lera-Miguel wrote the initial draft of the paper, and participated in revising the manuscript and addressing the reviewers’ comments. Dr. Lázaro, Dr. Castro-Fornieles and all co-authors participated in revising the manuscript and addressing the reviewers’ comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology, Institute of Neurosciences, Hospital Clínic, Villarroel 170, 08026, Barcelona, Spain

    Sara Lera-Miguel, Mireia Rosa, Olga Puig, Luisa Lázaro, Josefina Castro-Formieles & Rosa Calvo

  2. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red en Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), Ministerio de Sanidad, Madrid, Spain

    Olga Puig, Luisa Lázaro, Josefina Castro-Formieles & Rosa Calvo

  3. Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Lillehammer University College, Postbox 952, 2604, Lillehammer, Norway

    Nils Kaland

  4. Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Barcelona, Spain

    Luisa Lázaro & Josefina Castro-Formieles

  5. Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Luisa Lázaro & Josefina Castro-Formieles

Authors
  1. Sara Lera-Miguel
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  2. Mireia Rosa
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  3. Olga Puig
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  4. Nils Kaland
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  5. Luisa Lázaro
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  6. Josefina Castro-Formieles
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  7. Rosa Calvo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sara Lera-Miguel.

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Lera-Miguel, S., Rosa, M., Puig, O. et al. Assessing Advanced Theory of Mind in Children and Adolescents with High-Functioning Autism: The Spanish Version of the Stories of Everyday Life . J Autism Dev Disord 46, 294–304 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2585-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-015-2585-4

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