Early language development and the emergence of a theory of mind

The current study examined the relation between children's language development at 2 years of age and their theory of mind performance at 4 years of age. Twenty toddlers were initially tested when they were 2 years old. Measures of both lexical and grammatical development were obtained from: (1...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:First language 2002-06, Vol.22 (2), p.197-213
Main Authors: Farrar, M. Jeffrey, Maag, Lisa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child language
Cognitive development
False belief
Language acquisition
Language thought relationship
Native language acquisition
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test
Theory of mind
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Summary:The current study examined the relation between children's language development at 2 years of age and their theory of mind performance at 4 years of age. Twenty toddlers were initially tested when they were 2 years old. Measures of both lexical and grammatical development were obtained from: (1) parental completion of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (MCDI), and (2) a naturalistic play session between mother and child. The children returned at 4 years and were given four standard theory of mind tasks to assess understanding of: (a) false belief, (b) representational change, and (c) appearance-reality. In addition, in order to control for general language and cognitive development, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and the Woodcock-Johnson Memory for Sentences Test were also given. Strong associations were found between early language development and later theory of mind performance. These relationships may reflect similar social cognitive processes that govern the development of both language and theory of mind.
ISSN:0142-7237
1740-2344
DOI:10.1177/014272370202206504