Children With ASD Do Not Understand Hidden Emotions Before False Belief Attribution.

The study included 51 French-speaking children with ASD, so it may not apply to children with different languages, cultures, or levels of language ability. The number of children contributing to the developmental model was only 27 to 37, and the key content false belief versus hidden emotion comparison was based on 16 children. The order of the easier tasks changed across datasets, because few children had low total scores. The hidden-emotion task used here was a disappointing-gift story, not the earlier teasing story, so it may not measure the same skill as older studies. No ADOS-G or ADI-R scores were available, although diagnosis was established by clinical professionals. This was an assessment study, not a treatment study, so it cannot show that any intervention improves theory of mind.

Do not read this as proof that children with autism have typical social cognition or that a reversed hidden-emotion pattern is impossible. The study tested one low-verbal task version in 51 French-speaking children, and the hidden-emotion story differed from earlier teasing stories, so it does not settle all autism assessment.