SYMBOLIC PLAY, THEORY OF MIND (ToM) AND AUTISM

Theory of mind is the ability to understand and infer the Autism is a developmental disorder of genetic origin characterized by people who have this diagnosis having difficulties in understanding the complexity of social life, interactions between subjects, the intentions of others and their affective and emotional states.

Interventions with autistic people are generally done from the ABA approach (Contreras et al., 2023), and cognitive interventions have been left aside. Karmiloff-Smith (1992) states that although autism has a high genetic component, this does not imply that the subject with this condition cannot make progress in terms of the Theory of Mind.

One possibility of intervention with children with autism is Symbolic Play, a type of game that appears at the end of the first year. Behind the execution of this type of game, the child must create and/or share meanings of objects, people and the situation that do not correspond to the meanings that are usually attributed to them.

Slides from a Developmental Psychology course are presented, explaining the complexity of symbolic play and its relevance for working with children with ASD.

Keywords: ASD. Theory of Mind. Symbolic play. Intervention.