The roots of social cognition have been extensively investigated in infancy (i.e. Striano and Reid, 2009). However, while the developmental continuity between social information processing in the first year of life and first-order theory of mind skills have been documented (i.e. Olineck, Poulin-Dubois, 2007), the concurrent and predictive relations between pre-verbal and verbal mentalistic abilities within the first 24 months are still sparse. The main objective of this symposium is to present a set of new studies showing how infants and toddlers become able to understand specific social meaning, with particular attention to individual and contextual factors involved in this process. The symposium will thus integrate transversal and longitudinal data from studies conducted in American, German, and Italian laboratories on pre-verbal and verbal social skills before 2 years of age, mainly in typically developing but also in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The first paper will document the extent of infants' social monitoring at 8-10 months. The second paper will show a precocious association between internal state vocabulary, inhibitory control, and temperament. The third paper will illustrate the concurrent relations between toddlers’ sense of self and their internal state vocabulary at 24 months. The fourth paper will show a developmental continuity between preverbal and verbal social abilities, both in TD and ASD. By focusing on early understanding of social meaning, the symposium will highlight the specific challenges that characterize the research in early social development. Moreover, to what extent research in early infancy might contribute to the development of new tools for early diagnostic of ASD will be discussed.
Understanding Social Meaning: From Non-Verbal Social Abilities To Internal States Language
FADDA, ROBERTA
2014-01-01
Abstract
The roots of social cognition have been extensively investigated in infancy (i.e. Striano and Reid, 2009). However, while the developmental continuity between social information processing in the first year of life and first-order theory of mind skills have been documented (i.e. Olineck, Poulin-Dubois, 2007), the concurrent and predictive relations between pre-verbal and verbal mentalistic abilities within the first 24 months are still sparse. The main objective of this symposium is to present a set of new studies showing how infants and toddlers become able to understand specific social meaning, with particular attention to individual and contextual factors involved in this process. The symposium will thus integrate transversal and longitudinal data from studies conducted in American, German, and Italian laboratories on pre-verbal and verbal social skills before 2 years of age, mainly in typically developing but also in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The first paper will document the extent of infants' social monitoring at 8-10 months. The second paper will show a precocious association between internal state vocabulary, inhibitory control, and temperament. The third paper will illustrate the concurrent relations between toddlers’ sense of self and their internal state vocabulary at 24 months. The fourth paper will show a developmental continuity between preverbal and verbal social abilities, both in TD and ASD. By focusing on early understanding of social meaning, the symposium will highlight the specific challenges that characterize the research in early social development. Moreover, to what extent research in early infancy might contribute to the development of new tools for early diagnostic of ASD will be discussed.
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