Exploring the link between a theory of mind and executive functions in preschool children

Abstract

Acquisition of the theory of mind (TOM) is a very important milestone in the development of preschool children. TOM is especially important for the development of children’s social skills. The goal of the present study was to examine the effects of age, gender and executive functions (EF) on the acquisition of TOM. The sample in this study consisted of 116 preschool children aged 36-72 months (mean age 58.8 months, SD= 9.5 months). In relation to the child’s gender, there were 56 girls (48.3%) and 60 boys (51.7%). The Sally Anne test- a task purporting to measure TOM, was used as a dependant variable and age, gender, and EF measures were used as the predictors. Logistic regression was used as a method to determine the effects of predictors on TOM. The results of this study indicated that success on the TOM test can best be predicted by the inhibitory control, followed by verbal fluency and child’s age. The gender of the child was not associated with TOM acquisition. The overall model explained between 27% and 38% of the variance in the TOM scores. Inhibitory control is the executive function that had the greatest predictive power for the results on the theory of the mind task. The findings of this study can help early interventionists in the modification of existing preschool curricula, so that they include more activities that would foster the development of the theory of mind in preschool children. Future studies should aim to find a better model of theory of mind predictors by examining the effects of other executive function constructs, such as working memory.

The relationship between Theory of Mind and Executive Functioning in typically developing children: A systematic review

“…Finally, FB performance has been associated with other aspects of EFs, such as SH (ages 3-8 years) (Blair & Razza, 2007;Gordon et al, 2014;Guajardo et al, 2009;Kara & Selcuk, 2021;Oh & Lewis, 2008) and planning (PL) (Putko & Zlotogorska, 2014). Furthermore, children's scores (ages 8-11 years) in SH (Cassetta et al, 2018) and PL (ages 3-6 years) (Cole & Mitchell, 2000;Longobardi et al, 2021;Memisevic et al, 2018) have also been found to predict FB performance.…”

Asociación entre las funciones ejecutivas y la teoría de la mente en niños: Evidencia empírica e implicaciones teóricas

“…Adicionalmente, las relaciones diferenciales entre las tareas de FE y TdM son consistentes con investigaciones anteriores, las cuales señalan que las tareas de FE conflictivas como Oso/ Dragón, que implican tanto la inhibición como la MT, suelen relacionarse más fuertemente con la TdM que las tareas de Retraso o la MT sola (Carlson y Moses, 2001;Carlson et al, 2002;Devine & Hughes, 2014;Hala et al, 2003;Hughes y Ensor, 2007;Memisevic et al, 2018). Estudios adicionales con niños son consistentes al evidenciar que el desempeño en tareas de creencias falsas y otras tareas de TdM se puede predecir a partir de tareas que aprovechan las habilidades del funcionamiento ejecutivo como la inhibición de la respuesta, la resolución de conflictos cognitivos y la memoria de trabajo (Carlson et al, 1998;Brock et al, 2018;García-Molina & Clemente-Estevan, 2019;Hughes, 1998;Pesch et al, 2020;Perner & Lang, 2000).…”

Parental strategies to promote theory of mind development in autistic children of color

“…Being exposed to several languages helps children understand others better due to learning different ways of using language to relate to others. Since ToM plays a crucial role in social communication and executive functioning, early ToM capabilities can lead to later adaptive behaviors as well as academic success among autistic children ( Memisevic et al, 2018 ; Roselló et al, 2022 ). However, in recent years, the understanding of ToM in autism literature has significantly changed.…”