{"id":335,"date":"2020-04-22T14:37:41","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T13:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/upgrade-rocs\/?p=335"},"modified":"2020-08-21T14:07:47","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T13:07:47","slug":"temporal-cognition-in-children-with-autistic-spectrum-disorder-tests-of-diachronic-thinkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/temporal-cognition-in-children-with-autistic-spectrum-disorder-tests-of-diachronic-thinkin\/","title":{"rendered":"Temporal Cognition in Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder: Tests of Diachronic Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"

More information about the Kent author\u00a0here<\/a>
\n<\/strong>Find the full paper here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

About<\/span><\/b>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Diachronic thinking in the ability to think about ev<\/span>ents as spreading across time and<\/span>\u00a0consists of three components. First, the skill to infer past or future information from a current situation (example: the trees are dripping when you wake up, therefore you can infer it rained during the night). Second, the understanding that certain entities change qualitatively over time, but retain their identity (example: a caterpillar changes in to a butterfly, but is still the same animal). Third, the ability to understand that\u00a0<\/span>one event can be composed of multiple temporal events (example: The event \u2018going on a holiday\u2019 consists of packing, driving to the airport, getting on the plane etc). Most <\/span>typically<\/span> developing children have acquired these three skills by the age of 12.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is some evidence demonstrating that individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have a poor intuitive sense of time. This research suggests that ASD individuals find it hard to understand the passage of time as well as link it with ongoing activities. These difficulties can have important implications for everyday life. The current study investigates diachronic thinking in children with ASD.\u00a0Understanding the specific difficulties children with ASD face can offer practical solutions to educators in helping support children with ASD.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Research Objectives<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

\u2022 \u00a0To test the prediction that children with ASD show impairment<\/span>s<\/span> on tests of the three components of diachronic thinking relative to <\/span>a control group without ASD<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0To assess if performance on the tests of the different components of diachronic thinking is related.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0To assess if diachronic thinking performance <\/span>is related<\/span> to measures of general ability.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Programme and Methodology<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Study 1:\u00a0<\/span>46 participants (23 ASD, 23 control).
\nStudy 2: 30 participants (15 ASD, 15 control).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Children completed tasks for the three components of diachronic thinking.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0The second experiment included some control task<\/span>s and <\/span>a measure of<\/span> theory of mind (the ability to attribute mental states to other people). <\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Findings<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Children with ASD have a marked impairment in diachronic thinking.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0This impairment <\/span>cannot be explained<\/span> by other cognitive impairments, attention problems, or the lack of general knowledge.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Performance on the tasks for the three components of diachronic thinking is related.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 \u00a0Performance on diachronic tasks <\/span>were not related<\/span> to theory of mind or language level.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Impact<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

\u2022 This project offered <\/span>new and important insight<\/span><\/b> on <\/span>diachronic thinking in children with ASD. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Findings showed that children with ASD have difficulties in thinking about events as spreading across time. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 These results have important implications for educational settings<\/span>. Teachers and\/or SENCO’s should consider time-related difficulties and adapt their practice accordingly.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More information about the Kent author\u00a0here Find the full paper here About\u202f\u00a0 Diachronic thinking in the ability to think about events as spreading across time and\u00a0consists of three components. First, the skill to infer past or future information from a current situation (example: the trees are dripping when you wake up, therefore you can infer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":336,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autism"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2817,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions\/2817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.kent.ac.uk\/rocs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}