“<i>No! The Lambs Can Stay Out Because They Got Cozies</i>”: Constructive and Destructive Sibling Conflict, Pretend Play, and Social Understanding

Howe, Nina; Rinaldi, Christina M.; Jennings, Melissa; Petrakos, Harriet

doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00483

Cited by 114 publications

(120 citation statements)

References 36 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

109

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…32 Children who have siblings are afforded heightened exposure to certain contexts that are associated with social and cognitive development, including pretend play, conflict, and conversation. 10,[57][58][59][60] In these and other contexts, siblings provide one another with varying levels of stimulation, 31,32,61 which are important for understanding development. Second, being raised in a large sibship is not a risk factor for poor language development if children receive the appropriate stimulation from an older sibling.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sibship Size, Sibling Cognitive Sensitivity, and Children’s Receptive Vocabulary

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

WHAT'S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT: Sibship size has been negatively associated with children' s language, cognitive, and academic outcomes. This phenomenon is often explained in terms of resource dilution, wherein more children in the home is associated with fewer parental resources allocated to each child. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS:The current study identifies a moderator of this relationship. Specifically, if children' s next-inage older siblings exhibit high levels of cognitive sensitivity then sibship size is not significantly related to children' s vocabulary. abstract OBJECTIVES:The aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between sibship size and children' s vocabulary as a function of quality of sibling interactions. It was hypothesized that coming from a larger sibship (ie, 3+ children) would be related to lower receptive vocabulary in children. However, we expected this association to be moderated by the level of cognitive sensitivity shown by children' s next-in-age older siblings.METHODS: Data on 385 children (mean age = 3.15 years) and their nextin-age older siblings (mean age = 5.57 years) were collected and included demographic questionnaires, direct testing of children' s receptive vocabulary, and videos of mother-child and sibling interactions. Sibling dyads were taped engaging in a cooperative building task and tapes were coded for the amount of cognitive sensitivity the older sibling exhibited toward the younger sibling.RESULTS: Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted and showed an interaction between sibship size and sibling cognitive sensitivity in the prediction of children' s receptive vocabulary; children exposed to large sibships whose next-in-age older sibling exhibited higher levels of cognitive sensitivity were less likely to show low vocabulary skills when compared with those children exposed to large sibships whose siblings showed lower levels of cognitive sensitivity. CONCLUSIONS:Children who show sensitivity to the cognitive needs of their younger siblings provide a rich environment for language development. The negative impact of large sibships on language development is moderated by the presence of an older sibling who shows high cognitive sensitivity. Pediatrics 2014;133:e394-e401 AUTHORS:

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sibship Size, Sibling Cognitive Sensitivity, and Children’s Receptive Vocabulary

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Yet, the nature of complementary relationships by definition places certain constraints on freedom of communication that are not as present in more reciprocal relationships with siblings and peers (Hinde 1979). Furthermore, the authors give little attention to the role of social conflict as another possible context in which children develop social understanding, yet there is a literature providing support for this view (Dunn 2002;Howe et al 2002;Shantz & Hartup 1992). In particular, the work that has focused on constructive versus destructive conflicts holds important promise here.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constructing an understanding of mind: The development of children's social understanding within social interaction

2004

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:Theories of children's developing understanding of mind tend to emphasize either individualistic processes of theory formation, maturation, or introspection, or the process of enculturation. However, such theories must be able to account for the accumulating evidence of the role of social interaction in the development of social understanding. We propose an alternative account, according to which the development of children's social understanding occurs within triadic interaction involving the child's experience of the world as well as communicative interaction with others about their experience and beliefs (Chapman 1991;. It is through such triadic interaction that children gradually construct knowledge of the world as well as knowledge of other people. We contend that the extent and nature of the social interaction children experience will influence the development of children's social understanding. Increased opportunity to engage in cooperative social interaction and exposure to talk about mental states should facilitate the development of social understanding. We review evidence suggesting that children's understanding of mind develops gradually in the context of social interaction. Therefore, we need a theory of development in this area that accords a fundamental role to social interaction, yet does not assume that children simply adopt socially available knowledge but rather that children construct an understanding of mind within social interaction.Keywords: language; Piaget; social interaction; theories of mind; Vygotsky; Wittgenstein et al. 1998;Symons & Clark 2000), mothers' education (Cutting & Dunn 1999), and socioeconomic circumstances (Holmes et al. 1996).Furthermore, a number of studies have found correlations between language and social understanding (e.g., Cutting & Dunn 1999; de Villers 2000; Happé 1995;Jenkins & Astington 1996). In longitudinal studies, forms of family talk about mental states have been found to be related to later success on false belief tests (e.g., Brown et al. 1996;Dunn et al. 1991a;Ruffman et al. 2002). In addition, mothers who think of their children in mentalistic terms ("mindmindedness"), and therefore, presumably talk to their children about the psychological world, have children who are more advanced in understanding beliefs than are other children (Meins & Fernyhough 1999;Meins et al. 1998). Similar correlations between family interaction and the development of children's understanding of emotions have also been reported (e.g., Dunn et al. 1991b;Hooven et al. 1995;Kuebli et al. 1995;Steele et al. 1999). In a longitudinal study, Astington and Jenkins (1999) found that earlier language abilities predict later false belief performance but earlier false belief competence does not predict later language abilities, supporting the conclusion that language is important in social cognitive development.Another source of evidence that social interaction is important for the development of a mentalistic understanding comes from research with deaf children. A number o...

show abstract

“…As Cassidy and colleagues suggested (2005), it is possible that living with siblings generates specific kinds of conversations that improve theory of mind abilities. For example, pretend play between siblings has been associated with the use of internal state language (Howe, Petrakos, & Rinaldi, 1998;Howe, Rinaldi, Jennings, & Petrakos, 2002;Youngblade & Dunn, 1995). This increased talk about mental states may play an important role in the development of theory of mind.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relations among children’s theory of mind, family factors, language development, and story comprehension in L1 and L2 preschoolers

Markel¹,

Major²,

Pelletier³

2012

IJRSP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study examined the relation of family factors, vocabulary, and reading skills to theory of mind development and fables comprehension in children who spoke English as a first language (L1) and children who spoke English as a second language (L2). These factors were examined in 170 preschool children who spoke Arabic, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Vietnamese, Urdu, English, or a European language as a first language. All children were being schooled in English. General vocabulary more than any other factor predicted how well L1 and L2 learners performed on theory of mind and fables comprehension tasks. Children's reading skills contributed to fables understanding for L1 but not for L2 children.For all children, sibling status influenced vocabulary skills. Parental education was related to children's vocabulary and reading skills in the L1 group only. The results of this study provide support for the importance of considering the differential needs of first and second language learners.

show abstract

“No! The Lambs Can Stay Out Because They Got Cozies”: Constructive and Destructive Sibling Conflict, Pretend Play, and Social Understanding

Cited by 114 publications

References 36 publications

Sibship Size, Sibling Cognitive Sensitivity, and Children’s Receptive Vocabulary

Sibship Size, Sibling Cognitive Sensitivity, and Children’s Receptive Vocabulary

Constructing an understanding of mind: The development of children's social understanding within social interaction

Relations among children’s theory of mind, family factors, language development, and story comprehension in L1 and L2 preschoolers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About