ABSTRACT
This chapter juxtaposes a condensed review of research on the interpersonal understanding of normal two- to five-year-olds, with an equally abbreviated but hopefully representative account of parallel research that has been conducted with autistic individuals. It traces how autistic children’s impoverished experience of personal relatedness has developmental implications for their limited grasp of concepts concerning the nature of people with minds. The chapter discusses how autistic children have specific limitations in their concepts about people’s minds, and probably in their awareness of self. It intimates that autistic children might be constrained in acquiring concepts of mind and of the self because they have impoverished experience of interpersonal relatedness. The large majority of the subjects in each of the three groups tested (autistic, non-autistic retarded, and normal children, with the autistic subjects having somewhat higher verbal abilities) were able to recall their earlier-stated perceptions and desires.
