Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (Children's Version): a comparison study between children with typical development,...

One of psychology's challenges is to develop and evaluate sensitive tests in the area of social cognition. Yet, there are few available scales that can measure mild deficits in social understanding, especially for typically developing (TD) populations. The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (children's version) was translated and adapted for use in the Greek language [RMET-G (child)]. The aim of this study was to examine in the Greek language the qualitative and quantitative differences between TD youngsters and those with high-functioning autism (HFA), as well as the difference between TD children and TD adults.

An interview-based psychometric study was conducted. Participants completed the RMET-G (child), constituting 3 groups: TD children older than 8 years, children with HFA and TD adults.

103 participants completed the study. The results demonstrated that TD adults scored slightly higher than TD children, and children with HFA scored lower than their TD peers. Children with HFA, however, were able to recognize many of the pictures shown in the test.

The results of this study, which were the first to be conducted in the Greek language, confirm findings of other studies in the literature conducted with the RMET in the English language.