Theory of mind and language of mind in narratives: Developmental trends from kindergarten to primary school

Gamannossi, Beatrice Accorti; Pinto, Giuliana

doi:10.1177/0142723714535875

Cited by 32 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…As previous studies on TD children have indicated, from preschool years through middle-childhood, children's narrative skills undergo substantial developments in measures of referential cohesion, narrative structure, global coherence, and the use of connectives (Colozzo & Whitely, 2014;Gamannossi & Pinto, 2014;Mäkinen, Loukusa, Nieminen, Leinonen, & Kunnari, 2014;Peterson & McCabe, 1988). To gain insights into the narrative abilities in Mandarin-speaking children with ASD, therefore, investigations with school-age children should also be the focus for further research.…”

Section: Narrative Coherence In Mandarin-speaking Children With Asdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrative coherence of Mandarin-speaking children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder: An investigation into causal relations

Sah

Torng

2015

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Previous research has shown that individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) had difficulty integrating narrative information coherently. The majority of these studies focused on people narrating in English; however, little is known about the narrative abilities of Mandarin-speaking individuals with ASD. This study investigates the ability of Mandarin-speaking children with ASD to achieve narrative coherence. The data consist of narratives from 18 children with high-functioning ASD (M age : 8.23) and 18 typically developing children (M age : 7.03), matched on language and cognitive abilities. The narratives were elicited using Frog, where are you? Narrative coherence was assessed in terms of causal statements and causal networks. The results reveal no group differences in basic narrative measures or in overtly marked causal statements. The two groups of children were equally sensitive to the relative causal importance of story events. However, the narratives of children with ASD were less causally connected and less coherent. These findings are discussed with regard to their relationship to pragmatic deficits and the cognitive preference of children with ASD.

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Section: Narrative Coherence In Mandarin-speaking Children With Asdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrative coherence of Mandarin-speaking children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder: An investigation into causal relations

Sah

Torng

2015

First Language

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“…Mental state talk is the set of terms used by people to attribute physiological (e.g., being hungry), perceptual (e.g., see), willing (e.g., desire), emotional (e.g., anger), cognitive (e.g., knowing), moral (e.g., judge), and socio‐relational (e.g., helping) state to others (Bretherton & Beegley, ; Bulgarelli, Testa, & Molina, ; Symons, ). MST is a reliable measure of children's ToM, as demonstrated by the significant correlation with standardized measures of ToM (Accorti Gamannossi & Pinto, ; Peterson & Slaughter, ). Recently, MST has been considered as a stronger measure of ToM than other standardized measures of ToM: it has a higher ecological validity as it can be analysed in children's spontaneous productions; it allows us to explore a wider range of mental states (desires and feelings, besides the cognitive‐related aspects; Hughes, Marks, Ensor, & Lecce, ); and it allows us to analyse ToM development in primary school children, whereas other ToM measures reach a ceiling at the end of kindergarten (Lecce, Cavallini, & Pagnin, ; Wellman & Liu, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of narrative competence on mental state talk in kindergarten and primary school children

Tarchi

Bigozzi

Pinto

2019

British J of Dev Psycho

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This study investigates the relationships between narrative competence and mental state talk at different age levels. Specifically, we explored whether a higher level of structure in narratives is associated with children's mental state talk, and whether this effect is moderated by age (kindergarten, lower and upper primary school). The participants in the study were 172 Italian children. The children were asked to tell a story and their productions were coded for narrative structural level and mental state talk. Data showed higher levels of narrative structure were associated with a higher frequency of emotional, cognitive, moral, and socio-relational terms. Results of the present study contributed to improve our understanding about how mental state talk and narrative competence are associated in different ways at different ages. This result suggests that children may develop in the ability to coordinate mental state talk and narrative structure as an effect of both, age and schooling.

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“…Narratives represent an ideal context to analyze children’s mental state talk, as through them children develop, practice, and re-describe their ToM (Guajardo and Watson, 2002; Accorti Gamannossi and Pinto, 2014), as is also confirmed by neuro-psychological studies (Marchetti et al, 2015). According to the re-description theory (“representational redescription,” Karmiloff-Smith, 1995), the human mind first develops by learning a process, and then further develops by turning the information that is in the mind into explicit knowledge to the mind.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…A few studies have also validated mental state talk by finding significant correlation scores with standardized measures of ToM, such as the false-belief task (Peterson and Slaughter, 2006; Hughes et al, 2011; Accorti Gamannossi and Pinto, 2014). Thus, evidence from the typically and atypically developing population confirm mental state talk as a reliable indicator of children’s understanding of other people’s ToM.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Peer Interaction Does Not Always Improve Children’s Mental State Talk Production in Oral Narratives. A Study in 6- to 10-Year-Old Italian Children

2016

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Joint narratives are a mean through which children develop and practice their Theory of Mind (ToM), thus they represent an ideal means to explore children’s use and development of mental state talk. However, creating a learning environment for storytelling based on peer interaction, does not necessarily mean that students will automatically exploit it by engaging in productive collaboration, thus it is important to explore under what conditions peer interaction promotes children’s ToM. This study extends our understanding of social aspects of ToM, focusing on the effect of joint narratives on school-age children’s mental state talk. Fifty-six Italian primary school children participated in the study (19 females and 37 males). Children created a story in two different experimental conditions (individually and with a partner randomly assigned). Each story told by the children, as well as their dialogs were recorded and transcribed. Transcriptions of narratives were coded in terms of text quality and mental state talk, whereas transcriptions of dialogs were coded in terms of quality of interaction. The results from this study confirmed that peer interaction does not always improve children’s mental state talk performances in oral narratives, but certain conditions need to be satisfied. Peer interaction was more effective on mental state talk with lower individual levels and productive interactions, particularly in terms of capacity to regulate the interactions. When children were able to focus on the interaction, as well as the product, they were also exposed to each other’s reasoning behind their viewpoint. This level of intersubjectivity, in turn, allowed them to take more in consideration the contribution of mental states to the narrative.

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Theory of mind and language of mind in narratives: Developmental trends from kindergarten to primary school

Cited by 32 publications

References 29 publications

Narrative coherence of Mandarin-speaking children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder: An investigation into causal relations

Narrative coherence of Mandarin-speaking children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder: An investigation into causal relations

The influence of narrative competence on mental state talk in kindergarten and primary school children

Peer Interaction Does Not Always Improve Children’s Mental State Talk Production in Oral Narratives. A Study in 6- to 10-Year-Old Italian Children

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