The term "cognitive skills" refers to the processing and understanding of complex ideas, effective adaptation to the environment, the development of various forms of reasoning, learning from experience, and overcoming obstacles with the help of thinking. They involve the processing, interpretation, and retrieval of information. Cognitive skills are essential for learning, professional development, and the acquisition of other skills.
They are distinguished into basic and higher-level skills. Basic skills include attention, memory, acquisition and retrieval of information, organizational ability and analysis, transformation of this information, and perception. Higher-level skills are problem-solving, decision-making, critical and creative thinking, as well as metacognition.
The profile of cognitive skills in children, adolescents, and adults with ASD is not uniform. There are significant variations, which are due to various factors, such as whether the child participates in an early intervention program, the family environment, and whether the child is exposed to cultural elements such as music, books, etc. The most significant cognitive deficits are as follows:
• Deficits in Theory of Mind skills.
• Deficits in executive functions.
• Difficulty in acquiring critical and inductive thinking, metacognitive skills, and reflective skills.
• Difficulty in generalizing acquired skills and utilizing experiences in new situations.
• Deficits in the development of imitation skills, such as imitation of body movements, facial expressions, oral cavity movements, and verbal imitation.
