The Effect of Teaching Theory of Mind on Promoting Theory of Mind and Improving Social Skills of Male Students suffering Social Communication Disorders (Pragmatics)

Social communication disorder is a neuro-developmental disorder which is located in the vicinity of autistic disorder and causes problems in the context of appropriate social interactions.This study was was done aiming at investigating the effectiveness of teaching the theory of mind on improving the theory of mind and social skills of students suffering from social communication disorder.

The present study was a semi experimental typewith pre-test, post-test andcontrol group.The statistical population of this study consisted of all male students infifth and sixth grades (1319) fromschools of Bostanabad city in the academicyear of 2017-18.The purposive sampling was used to select theresearch sample.To fulfill the research goal, the criteria for social communication disorder were explained to the relevant teachers, and suspicious students were introduced by them. For further certainty, a diagnostic interview was carried out on the basis of DSM-5 screening and 26 students were selected and randomly divided into two experimental and control groups.To collect the research data, students’social skills questionnaire of Eliot and Gershamand Qamarani et al’s theory of mind test wereused.The experimental group trained under the theory of mind for eight two-hour sessions during the four weeks.

The results of covariance analysis at a significant level of 0.5 showed that the experimental group showedsignificant improvement in the theory of mind and social skills compared to the control group.

Improving the theory of mind seems to be promising to improve social skills and reduce inappropriate social outcomes in people suffering this disorder.