The Evolution of Social Cognition Development in Children whit Autism Spectrum and ADHD Disorders: A Systematic Review Study

Autism spectrum and attention-deficit/hyperactivity (ADHD) disorders are associated with widespread social cognitive impairments that affect their social relationships. In this regard, the present review study was conducted to investigate the development of social cognition in children with autism spectrum and ADHD disorders. In this systematic meta-analysis study, published articles on the development of social cognition in children with autism spectrum and ADHD disorder from 2008 to 2020 were reviewed. In order to access related scientific documents, the keywords Social Cognition, Autism Spectrum, Exceptional Children and ADHD disorder in the titles and abstracts of articles published in reputable domestic and international scientific databases such as SID, Magiran, Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, and ScienceDirect were searched and all related Persian and English articles were listed. Out of a total of 872 related articles published by 2020, 25 Persian and English articles were reviewed. According to the results of the studies, children with autism spectrum disorders and ADHD had low levels of social cognition and development of social cognition dimensions such as the theory of mind, empathy, decision making, facial recognition, behavior, and social interactions. According to the findings of the present study, it is recommended that interventions be taken by psychologists and therapists to rehabilitate and improve social cognition and prevent psychological disorders in children with ASD and ADHD.