Theory of Mind in Infants and Young Children: A Review

Slaughter, Virginia

doi:10.1111/ap.12080

Cited by 62 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…These results are consistent with previous research on implicit or anticipatory false belief in children with ASD (Kimhi, 2014; Senju, 2012; Schuwerk, et al, 2016; Slaughter, 2015). Some researchers have even found this to be true in adults with ASD, where the participants failed to spontaneously anticipate the protagonist’s actions in a false belief task (Senju, Southgate, White, & Frit, 2009).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Social motivation and implicit theory of mind in children with autism spectrum disorder

2017

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According to the social motivation theory of autism, children who develop Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have early deficits in social motivation, which is expressed by decreased attention to social information. These deficits are said to lead to impaired socio-cognitive development, such as theory of mind (ToM). There is little research focused on the relation between social motivation and ToM in this population. The goal of the present study was to investigate the link between one aspect of social motivation, social orienting, and ToM in preschoolers with ASD. It was expected that, in contrast to typically developing (TD) children, children with ASD would show impaired performance on tasks measuring social orienting and ToM. It was also expected that children’s performance on the social orienting tasks would be correlated with their performance on the ToM task. A total of 17 children with ASD and 16 TD children participated in this study. Participants completed two social orienting tasks, a face preference task and a biological motion preference task, as well an implicit false belief task. Results reveal that TD children, but not children with ASD, exhibited social preference as measured by a preference for faces and biological motion. Furthermore, children with ASD tended to perform worse on the ToM task compared to their TD counterparts. Performance on the social motivation tasks and the ToM task tended to be related but only for the TD children. These findings suggest that ToM is multifaceted and that motivational deficits might have downstream effects even on implicit theory of mind.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Social motivation and implicit theory of mind in children with autism spectrum disorder

2017

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“…Joint action therefore takes on new forms and gains new meanings. Unsurprisingly, this also coincides with the emergence of explicit forms of mentalizing (see Slaughter, 2015) and with children's growing awareness of the racial, ethnic and cultural differences that permeate the social world (Nesdale, 2004).…”

Section: Concluding Thoughtsmentioning

confidence: 86%

Music in the early years: Pathways into the social world

Ilari

2016

Research Studies in Music Education

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Two assumptions that underlie much research in early childhood music education are that music is a social endeavor and musical participation is beneficial to children's overall social development. As members of cultural and social groups, young children engage with music in a multitude of ways and with different companions. This article examines young children's musical engagement from a social perspective, integrating research from a wide range of fields and theoretical orientations. The first section brings forward a discussion on the nature of social interactions with an emphasis on three building blocks of social cognition and their relationships to musical experiences of young children. Studies on rhythmic entrainment, social identity in childhood, musical play, and the effects of formal music education on children's social development are discussed in the next sections, along with some of the caveats of current theorizing. Implications for future research and practice in music education are woven throughout the text.

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“…Language ushers in a phase whereby young children are capable of engaging in a high degree of explicit mental state talk, and socialization practices that involve conversations about mental states may support the development of ToM. Overall, parental conversations about the mind are regarded as one of the best documented environmental influences in children's understanding of mental state concepts (Slaughter, ). In Western societies, perspective‐shifting discourse in parent–child conversations are related to children's FB reasoning (e.g., Ensor, Devine, Marks, & Hughes, ; Low, ; Milligan, Astington, & Dack, ; Ruffman, Slade, & Crowe, ).…”

Section: The Opacity Doctrinementioning

confidence: 99%

Scaling Theory of Mind in a Small‐Scale Society: A Case Study From Vanuatu

et al. 2017

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Although theory of mind (ToM) is argued to emerge between 3 and 5 years of age, data from non-Western, small-scale societies suggest diversity. Deeper investigations into these settings are warranted. In the current study, over 400 Melanesian children from Vanuatu (range = 3-14 years), growing up in either urban or rural remote environments, completed culturally tailored ToM batteries. Results show a marked delay in false belief (FB) performance, particularly among participants from rural villages. By further investigating a diverse range of concepts beyond FB, we illustrate two unique cultural sequences for a suite of mental state concepts among urban and rural ni-Vanuatu children. Implications for social and cultural influences on the development of ToM are discussed.

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Theory of Mind in Infants and Young Children: A Review

Cited by 62 publications

References 53 publications

Social motivation and implicit theory of mind in children with autism spectrum disorder

Social motivation and implicit theory of mind in children with autism spectrum disorder

Music in the early years: Pathways into the social world

Scaling Theory of Mind in a Small‐Scale Society: A Case Study From Vanuatu

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