Association for Behavior Analysis International

Perspective taking is an important skill in the interaction of humans. Perspective taking can be defined as the ability to understand ones own experience as separate from another individuals experience. It is typically studied in developmental psychology using Theory of Mind Tasks. Relational Frame Theory offers a behavioral conceptualization of perspective taking as based in deictic relational responding relational responses that involve discrimination of a particular perspective (i.e., here vs. there, or now vs. then). This symposium explores deictic relational responding in children on the autism spectrum, individuals who are deaf, or individuals with traumatic brain injury. The first paper will extend previous research on the convergence between deictic relational responding and true and false beliefs in children with autism. The second paper will present data on teaching perspective taking skills to adults with TBI through established protocols, which utilize deictic relational frames. The third paper will review the literature on perspective taking in the Deaf and will offer an overview of the adaptation of the Deictic Relational Task for use with deaf individuals.

Perspective taking is a pivotal behavioral repertoire essential for social functioning, and is what some recognize as a hallmark deficit of the Autism Spectrum Disorder. Relational Frame Theory conceptualizes perspective taking in terms of deictic relational responding, or the ability to relate events based on the discrimination of a particular perspective. Advances in the study of deictic relational responding have included the development of a perspective taking training protocol shown to improve performance on false belief tasks in typically developing children; however, there has been little research on the generality of these findings in children with ASD. The role of deictic relational responding in social interaction is also undetermined. The following data extend on previous findings of the role of deictic relational responding on true and false belief and lend support to their application on advanced Theory of Mind tasks. Implications for promoting social skills in children with autism are also discussed.

Each year in the U.S., around 1.7 million people sustain a TBI and of those, approximately 52,000 die, 275,000 are hospitalized, and 1.365 million are treated and released from an emergency department. There are several factors which contribute to potential outcomes for people with TBI related disabilities, including the age at which the person sustained the injury, amount of time since the injury occurred, and the severity of the injury. Behavior analytic approaches to TBI recovery generally include basic behavior change programming involving both reduction and acquisition. One repertoire known to be severely affected after brain injury is perspective taking. The ability to take the perspective of another greatly contributes to social interactions and involves a complex set of skills. To date, behavior analysis has not shown the ability to adequately affect the re-acquisition of this repertoire. A small number of studies have attempted to train perspective taking skills in populations lacking the ability, but none with people with TBI. This study aimed to teach perspective taking skills to adults with TBI through established protocols, which utilize deictic relational frames.