Aim/Purpose: This study explores the effectiveness of a virtual reality (VR) application designed to teach Theory of Mind (ToM) skills to children aged 5-6, addressing the gap in research on the use of VR for typically developing children. Background: ToM is a critical skill for social interaction and understanding others' perspectives. Despite…

The aim of the present study was to investigate the associations between social-emotional and language development in a sample of 3-5-year-old children in community-based early childhood education and care (N = 90). Children's theory of mind understanding, affect recognition and language abilities were tested with neuropsychological measurements,…

Perspective taking, defined as the ability to take on the visual, cognitive, and affective perspective of others, is considered a highly adaptive skill, vital for the child's social, intellectual, and emotional development. This article provides a critical analysis of scientific psychological literature from 1995 to the present on the main methods…

How do responsive adult-child interactions influence early language development? How do a child's language skills develop in tandem with social-emotional development, executive function, and literacy? What are effective ways to help parents support their child's development? Uncover the answers to these questions in this fascinating book, which…

We propose a new version of the "theory theory" grounded in the computational framework of probabilistic causal models and Bayesian learning. Probabilistic models allow a constructivist but rigorous and detailed approach to cognitive development. They also explain the learning of both more specific causal hypotheses and more abstract framework…

The processes and mechanisms of theory-of-mind development were examined via a training study of false-belief conceptions in deaf children of hearing parents (N = 43). In comparison to 2 different control conditions, training based on thought-bubble instruction about beliefs was linked with improved false-belief understanding as well as progress…

In the UK, mainstream schools can decide to exclude students because of their behaviour. Students are then placed in pupil referral units (PRUs, sometimes known as short-stay schools) until their needs can be more thoroughly assessed so that they can then be placed appropriately. This article outlines the development of one particular approach to…

In this study the authors investigated whether training preschool children in the use of mental state lexicon plays a significant role in bringing about advanced conceptual understanding of mental terms and improved performance on theory-of-mind tasks. A total of 70 participants belonging to two age groups (3 and 4 years old) were randomly…

This chapter identifies three common pitfalls in the use of the concept of empathy in formal social-emotional learning interventions: (1) not distinguishing between affective and cognitive empathy ("equivocation"); (2) overestimating the role of the imagination in empathizing ("Piaget's fallacy"); and (3) not accommodating the developmental and…

Purpose: This tutorial is intended to inform readers about the development of theory of mind (understanding of mental states) and to discuss relationships between theory of mind and language development. Method: A narrative review of selected literature on language and theory of mind is presented. Theory of mind is defined, and commonly used…