Supporting Inferential Comprehension in the Preschool Classroom: The Roles of Theory of Mind and Executive Skills

Abstract

Although much is known about supporting preschoolers' alphabet knowledge, less is known about instructional moves that support preschoolers' narrative comprehension or how preschoolers' developing cognitive skills may support their narrative comprehension development. This school‐university partnership project examined relations of preschoolers' Theory of Mind (i.e., social understanding) and executive function skills to narrative comprehension development in three instructional contexts: inferential, interactive vocabulary‐focused, and typical instruction in preschool classrooms. Structured, inferential comprehension instruction emerged as a promising practice that may support preschoolers' narrative comprehension development. We observed that children who received structured inferential comprehension instruction showed greater responsiveness to the instruction if they were high on cognitive flexibility or Theory of Mind, suggesting that these preschool cognitive skills may be important for developing comprehension. The structured, inferential comprehension intervention is described, as are applications to classroom practice.