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Peer action coordination has been often studied in terms of its underlying cognitive mechanisms, and little is known about its emotional processes. The aim of the present study was to investigate the extent to which children's emotion understanding explains their coordination of actions with a peer in a cooperative sensorimotor problem-solving task. Sixtyeight 5-to 9-year-old children were assessed for their emotion understanding with the Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) and for their problem-solving capacities with a sensorimotor task in an individual setting (individual sensorimotor skills) and in a cooperative setting (peer action coordination). The results showed that higher levels of emotion understanding significantly explained greater peer action coordination, even when controlling for age, gender and the child's individual sensorimotor skills. The findings point to the existence of emotional mechanismsmore specifically the role of emotion understanding-underlying successful coordination of actions in peer interaction. Theoretical and educational implications of having emotion understanding abilities for coordinating actions with others are discussed.

Recent studies show that Theory of Mind (ToM) has implications for children’s social competences and psychological well-being. Nevertheless, although it is well documented that children overall take advantage when they have to resolve cognitive problems together with a partner, whether individual difference in ToM is one of the mechanisms that could explain cognitive performances produced in social interaction has received little attention. This study examines to what extent ToM explains children’s spatial performances in a dyadic situation. The sample includes 66 boys and girls between the ages of 5–9 years, who were tested for their ToM and for their competence to resolve a Spatial task involving mental rotation and spatial perspective taking, first individually and then in a dyadic condition. Results showed, in accordance with previous research, that children performed better on the Spatial task when they resolved it with a partner. Specifically, children’s ToM was a better predictor of their spatial performances in the dyadic condition than their age, gender, and spatial performances in the individual setting. The findings are discussed in terms of the relation between having a conceptual understanding of the mind and the practical implications of this knowledge for cognitive performances in social interaction regarding mental rotation and spatial perspective taking.

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Recent research has shown that emotion understanding (EU)—the capacity to understand the nature, causes, and consequences of emotions—plays a crucial role in the development of emotional, social, and cognitive competences. However, there are still many unanswered questions about the extent to which EU facilitates children’s cooperative problem-solving in educational settings. For instance, it is not yet clear how understanding emotions positively impacts children’s interaction both when they play freely with peers and when they are engaged in problem-solving tasks. In addition, there is no conclusive answer about whether the impact of EU on cooperative problem-solving varies depending on children’s age. This chapter aims to address this shortfall. Building on empirical findings, the usefulness of EU for children engaged in different types of cooperation (dyadic, triadic, free play), and at different ages (from toddlerhood to middle childhood) is discussed.