Social and pragmatic impairments in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. A lack of Theory of Mind?

Individuals affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are impaired in the domains of social interaction and communication. This paper aims at reviewing the pertinent literature to offer a better understanding of the theoretical debate on the social and linguistic impairments experienced by individuals with autism. The available literature was revised up to March 2014. Data were extracted pertaining to the following categories related to ASD: pragmatic impairments, metaphor, social interaction, Theory of Mind. The results show that, although little uncertainty remains that individuals with ASD have difficulty in tasks involving mentalizing, not all Authors agree that this deficit is the consequence of impairment in the capacity to represent the mental states of others (Theory of Mind). Some studies showed that individuals with ASD that experience difficulties in understanding non-literal linguistic expressions such as irony or metaphor also do not understand how signals in general modulate goal-directed behaviors. Future research in order to gain a clearer picture on the mechanisms underlying the pragmatic and social impairments in individuals with ASD might investigate to what extent these problems are the results of how signals, rather than mental states, modulate the significance of meaning. © 2015 Associazione Oasi Maria SS. - IRCCS.