The current scoping review aims to investigate the production of Internal State Terms (ISTs) from individuals with autism and typical intelligence in comparison to neurotypical peers. ISTs or mental state terms are words used to describe emotions, feelings, thoughts, volitions, desires and perception for oneself and others. These terms are acquired in parallel with Theory of Mind (ToM) skills in typically developing children. In relevant literature are divided into distict categories such as emotion words, perceptual terms, physiological terms, volition and desire verbs, cognition verbs and moral/obligation words. Internal states terms are not acquired all in the same age. Research in typically developing children has proved that cognitive words are acquired later that other categories of ISTs. This developmental pattern seems to be consistent between different languages. Since individuals with ASD have deficits in ToM and difficulties in emotion regulation, one would except that they would also face more difficulties in the production of these terms. Studies have provided conflicting results and this review aims to summarize research findings and address methodological aspects hindering cross-study synthesis and generalization.
Vasiliki et al. (Sat,) studied this question.