The Relation Between Emotion Understanding and Theory of Mind in Children Aged 3 to 8: The Key Role of Language

Grazzani, I; Ornaghi, Veronica; Conte, Elisabetta; Pepe, Alessandro; Caprin, C

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00724

Cited by 59 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 75 publications

(98 reference statements)

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“…Children in the first cluster were younger and displayed lower ToM abilities, particularly in the understanding of emotions, consequences, and cognitive mental states. These results are in line with the literature, which has identified a positive and predictive relationship between developmental age and ToM abilities, notably in typically developing children ( Grazzani et al, 2018 ; Conte et al, 2019 ) and in children with IDs (e.g., Charman and Campbell, 2002 ; Baurain and Nader-Grosbois, 2013 ; Nader-Grosbois et al, 2013 ). Children have to display a certain level of cognitive skills to understand mental states ( Cicchetti et al, 1995 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Social Cognition in Children With Non-specific Intellectual Disabilities: An Exploratory Study

Jacobs¹,

Simon²,

Nader-Grosbois³

2020

Front. Psychol.

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Social cognitive abilities – notably, Theory of Mind (ToM) and social information processing (SIP) – are key skills for the development of social competence and adjustment. By understanding affective and cognitive mental states and processing social information correctly, children will be able to enact prosocial behaviors, to interact with peers and adults adaptively, and to be socially included. As social adjustment and inclusion are major issues for children with intellectual disabilities (IDs), the present study aimed to explore their social cognitive profile by combining cluster analysis of both ToM and SIP competence, and to investigate the structure of relations between these skills in children with IDs. Seventy-eight elementary school children with non-specific IDs were recruited. They had a chronological age ranging from 4 years and 8 months to 12 years and 6 months and presented a preschool developmental age. Performance-based measures were administered to assess ToM and SIP abilities. Questionnaires were completed by the children’s parents to evaluate the children’s social competence and adjustment and their risk of developing externalizing or internalizing behaviors. Exploratory analysis highlighted strengths and weaknesses in the social cognitive profiles of these children with IDs. It also emphasized that the understanding of affective and cognitive mental states was used differently when facing appropriate vs. inappropriate social behaviors. The present study leads to a better understanding of the socio-emotional profile of children with IDs and offers some suggestions on how to implement effective interventions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Social Cognition in Children With Non-specific Intellectual Disabilities: An Exploratory Study

Jacobs¹,

Simon²,

Nader-Grosbois³

2020

Front. Psychol.

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“…In support of this association, several cross‐sectional studies have found that ToM and emotion understanding are significantly correlated in 3‐ to 5‐year‐olds (Harwood & Farrar, ), 3‐ to 8‐year‐olds (Grazzani, Ornaghi, Conte, Pepe, & Caprin, ), and 4‐ to 6‐year‐olds (Weimer, Sallquist, & Bolnick, ). However, the cross‐sectional nature of these studies does not allow for an understanding of the temporal nature of reported associations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Emotion versus cognition: differential pathways to theory of mind for children with high versus low callous‐unemotional traits

Satlof‐Bedrick

Waller

Olson

2019

Child Psychology Psychiatry

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Background: Theory of mind (ToM) serves as a foundation for developing social cognition. Developmental theory suggests that early emotion understanding supports the development of ToM, but few studies have tested this question within longitudinal designs. Additionally, children with callous-unemotional (CU) traits directly challenge this theory as they appear to develop intact ToM despite deficits in emotion understanding. Inhibitory control is proposed as one possible compensatory mechanism for ToM development in children with high CU traits. Methods: We examined emotion understanding and inhibitory control at age 3 as predictors of ToM at age 6 and tested whether these pathways were different in children with high versus low levels of CU traits. Multimethod data included observations of child emotion understanding and inhibitory control and parent reports of CU traits drawn from a prospective, longitudinal study (N = 240, 48% female). Results: Consistent with our hypothesis, emotion understanding at age 3 significantly predicted ToM at age 6 only for children with low CU traits. Although there was a significant interaction between inhibitory control and CU traits in relation to later ToM, the simple slopes were not significant. Conclusions: We find prospective longitudinal evidence that emotion understanding is a developmental precursor of ToM. However, this pathway was not evident in children with high CU traits. Future research is needed to further explore potential mechanisms by which children with CU traits develop ToM with a potential focus on higher-order cognitive skills.

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“…For instance; studies conducted by Cutting and Dunn, (2006) and Dunn and Brophy (2005) showed that children who were raised in families where mental state and feelings were shared and who participated in such conversations were more successful in assessments on recognition of the mind and emotions. Similarly, Ornaghi, Pepe, Agliati and Grazzani (2018) found that children with high language ability were talented emotional regulation. Milligan, Astington and Dack (2007) conducted a meta-analysis on 104 studies that examined the relationship between false beliefs and language skills in children and found that the false belief performance was associated with language skills.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

The Relationship between Perspective Taking Skills and Language Development in Preschool Children

Emen¹,

Aslan²

2019

JoEED

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Perspective taking is a fundamental skill that helps us to understand others' thoughts, feelings and perceptions. Past studies have shown that there were significant relations between young children's perspective taking abilities and age, gender, formal schooling and socioeconomic status. The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between perspective taking skills and language development in preschool children. The study sample included 98 three to five-year-old children (53 girls and 45 boys) attending six kindergartens located at the city center of Adana, Turkey. Children came from families with similar demographic characteristics. As data collection instruments, Perspective Taking Test for Children (PTC) and Peabody Picture-Vocabulary Test were used. Data were obtained by individual interviews. Firstly, children were presented the PTC. The next day, Peabody Picture-Vocabulary Test wasapplied to the children. The results show that there was a significant and positive correlation between perspective taking skills and language development of the children. These correlations were high value for the age of three years, moderate for four years old and high for five years old. It was also determined that language development of children predicted their perspective taking skills significantly.

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The Relation Between Emotion Understanding and Theory of Mind in Children Aged 3 to 8: The Key Role of Language

Cited by 59 publications

References 75 publications

Social Cognition in Children With Non-specific Intellectual Disabilities: An Exploratory Study

Social Cognition in Children With Non-specific Intellectual Disabilities: An Exploratory Study

Emotion versus cognition: differential pathways to theory of mind for children with high versus low callous‐unemotional traits

The Relationship between Perspective Taking Skills and Language Development in Preschool Children

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