Thisarticle is about the differences in the activity inside the brains of kids withASD (autism spectrum disorder) versus TD (typical development). There were twotheories looked at in this article. The first being that kids with autism don’tinteract with others because of lack of a neurological “reward”, this is calledthe social motivation hypothesis. When looking at humans and kids with TD,socializing is something we do regularly because it makes us happy, satisfiedand we feel good about social interactions with others. This hypothesis statesthat kids with autism don’t engage in interaction with others purposefully becausethen don’t get that same reward as others do, it doesn’t satisfy them.
A secondtheory was that children with autism often overanalyze and try to interpretsocial cues of others which makes them shy away from any interactions that mayseem overwhelming to them. This theory is also known as the overly intenseworld hypothesis. Theytested this by setting children in front of a screen and tested what they anticipatedas a reward and the reward process.
Therewere two screens and the kids had to pick which screen they thought had thequestion mark under in. In reality, if they were right or wrong was completelyrandomized. The kids played this game two different ways. During the first,when the right/wrong box was chosen they saw a happy/sad face.
In the nonsocialblock there were arrows to indicate if the child was right or wrong. Theresults supported both of the hypothesis that were looked at.There aren’tmany direct connections between this article and discussions we have had inclass. It is a little far fetched but in class we started looking at a casestudy of a mom who is battling weather or not to give her child a shot that hasbeen linked to cause autism.
They only way these two really relate it that theyhave to do with autism. This article interested me because I have a passion forkids with disabilities and hope to go into the teaching field in some way. One question I have is if there is a way tochange how different kids brains react and how realistic is it to be able to implementthat so kids with autism don’t have a problem with social interactions.
