由于心理理论与社会互惠的关系,长期以来一直被研究为自闭症谱系障碍的核心弱点,而双语已经被证明可以弥补自闭症患者的“心理弱点”。然而,我们对双语和单语自闭症儿童的心理发展轨迹理论的了解,以及与自闭症谱系障碍的心理发展理论相关的因素仍然有限。当前的研究已经在三个时间点纵向检查了21名单语言和21名双语自闭症儿童的一阶和二阶心理技能理论,特别是在6、9和12岁时,还调查了心理理论轨迹与儿童语言轨迹之间的关联,智力和执行功能技能。结果表明,双语自闭症儿童在9岁和12岁的二阶心理理论中的表现优于他们的单语同龄人,尤其是,表达性词汇技能在推进双语孤独症儿童二阶心智理论发展中起着举足轻重的作用。另一方面,单语自闭症儿童仅在12岁时设法利用他们的语言和智力资源。研究结果强调了纵向研究双语对自闭症儿童高级认知能力的影响的重要性。
Theory of Mind has long been studied as a core weakness in autism spectrum disorder due to its relationship with social reciprocity, while
bilingualism has been shown to compensate for autistic individuals\' mentalizing weaknesses. However, our knowledge of the Theory of Mind developmental trajectories of bilingual and monolingual autistic children, as well as of the factors related to Theory of Mind development in autism spectrum disorder is still limited. The current study has examined first- and second-order Theory of Mind skills in 21 monolingual and 21 bilingual autistic children longitudinally across three time points, specifically at ages 6, 9, and 12, and also investigated associations between Theory of Mind trajectories and trajectories of the children\'s language, intelligence and executive function skills. The results reveal that bilingual autistic children outperformed their monolingual peers in second-order Theory of Mind at ages 9 and 12, and that intelligence and, especially, expressive vocabulary skills played a pivotal role in advancing bilingual autistic children\'s second-order Theory of Mind development. On the other hand, monolingual autistic children only managed to capitalize on their language and intelligence resources at age 12. The findings highlight the importance of investigating
bilingualism effects on autistic children\'s advanced cognitive abilities longitudinally.