Theories associated with ASD
- The Theory of Mind: This is the ability to represent the mental states of others and to understand what others both think and/or want others to do. For people with ASD this ability may be impaired and means there may be evidenced by a lack of understanding of others thoughts and feelings.
- The Theory of Weak Central Coherence: People without ASD can process things from a global perspective while the individual with ASD can focus on specific aspects of information or images only.
- The Theory of Executive Dysfunction: Executive functions are a set of cognitive skills which help us organise ourselves, be flexible, anticipate, plan, set objectives and goals and to control our impulses. Executive dysfunction explains the need for routine due to self-organisation difficulties.
- The Theory of Empathising-Systemising: It is theorised that people with ASD show a low level of activity in the empathy circuit of the brain. However they often show high interest in systems e.g. collection systems (cars), mechanical systems (how the car works), numerical systems (calendars, schedules), motor systems (jumping).
