Theory of mind, directly and indirectly, facilitates kindergarten adjustment via verbal ability, executive function, and emotion knowledge

Brock, Laura L.; Kim, Helyn; Kelly, Cara; Mashburn, Andrew J.; Grissmer, David W.

doi:10.1002/pits.22216

Cited by 19 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(90 reference statements)

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“…For instance, Grazzani et al (2016b) found that stimulating conversations about mental states in young children attending nursery school had positive effects on their emotion knowledge and theory of mind skills which remained stable over time. In turn, improved social cognition is associated with multiple positive outcomes, such as good peer relationships, popularity with peers, prosocial behaviors (Imuta et al, 2016; Ornaghi et al, 2016), school readiness, and adjustment (Wang, 2015; Brock et al, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotion Knowledge, Theory of Mind, and Language in Young Children: Testing a Comprehensive Conceptual Model

et al. 2019

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Numerous studies suggest that both emotion knowledge and language abilities are powerfully related to young children’s theory of mind. Nonetheless, the magnitude and direction of the associations between language, emotion knowledge, and theory-of-mind performance in the first years of life are still debated. Hence, the aim of this study was to assess the direct effects of emotion knowledge and language on theory-of-mind scores in 2- and 3-year-old children. A sample of 139 children, aged between 24 and 47 months (M = 35.5 months; SD = 6.73), were directly administered measures of emotion knowledge, theory of mind, and language. We conducted structural equation modeling (SEM) to evaluate the effects of these variables within a single comprehensive framework, while also controlling for any effects of age and gender. The proposed structural equation model provided an excellent fit for the data, indicating that both children’s emotion knowledge, and their language ability had direct positive effects on theory of mind scores. In addition, age was found to wield statistically significant effects on all the variables under study, whereas gender was not significantly associated with any of them. These findings suggest the importance of fostering young children’s emotion knowledge and language ability with a view to enhancing their comprehension of mental states.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotion Knowledge, Theory of Mind, and Language in Young Children: Testing a Comprehensive Conceptual Model

et al. 2019

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“…In a slightly older sample, the mean correlation between receptive vocabulary and emotion knowledge was r = 0.51 (12). Brock et al (13) reported a zero-order correlation of r = 0.40 between emotion knowledge and expressive vocabulary in 5-year-olds. These studies suggest that language skills are very important when acquiring the basic knowledge about emotions before entering formal schooling.…”

Section: Emotion Knowledge Language Skills and Executive Functionsmentioning

confidence: 93%

The Adaptive Test of Emotion Knowledge for 3-to 9-Year-Olds: Psychometric Properties and Validity

Voltmer

Salisch

2022

Front. Psychiatry

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Children with an advanced knowledge of emotions are generally more socially competent, less likely to suffer from psychopathology, and more likely to succeed in school, both socially and academically. The assessment of children's emotion knowledge has thus gained importance in recent decades - both in psychiatric practice and in developmental and educational psychology. However, there is still a lack of appropriate instruments for assessing children's emotion knowledge in a performance test reliably, and for a broad age range. The Adaptive Test of Emotion Knowledge (ATEM 3–9) is a newly developed measure which encompasses seven components of emotion knowledge in 3–9-year-olds. The ATEM 3–9 is an adaptive test which uses skip and dropout rules to adjust for children's varying levels of knowledge. In addition to German, the ATEM has been translated into English and Hebrew. The German norming sample of the ATEM 3–9 comprises N = 882 (54% female, 21% bilingual) children between the ages of 3 and 9 years, who were divided into seven age groups. Test items, which are ordered according to the item response theory, showed a good fit to a seven-dimensional model reflecting the seven components. The internal consistencies of the dimensions are acceptable to good. Construct validity was examined by means of correlations with other measures of emotion knowledge, as well as measures on language skills and executive functions in a subsample. This resulted in medium size correlations in the expected directions. In addition, children with externalizing and internalizing disorders who were recruited in psychiatric in- and outpatient clinics showed deficits in various components of emotion knowledge when compared to their agemates in the norming sample. Overall, the ATEM 3–9 is well suited to measure individual components of emotion knowledge in children and to obtain a differentiated picture of the various aspects of emotion knowledge. The ATEM 3–9 thus supports the investigation of the development of social-emotional competencies in normative development (e.g., school readiness) and in social-emotional-learning interventions. Furthermore, it is suitable as an instrument for the differentiated assessment of (progress of) children's emotion knowledge in clinical child psychology and psychiatry.

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“…These experiences foster opportunities to recognise and discuss emotions, as well as to discuss inner states. Interventions such as these have been shown to have positive long-term effects on peer relationships, popularity with peers, school readiness, and general life adjustment (Brock, Kim, Kelly, Mashburn, & Grissmer, 2019;Imuta, Henry, Slaughter, Selcuk, & Ruffman, 2016).…”

Section: Implications For Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Communication That Leads to Successful Social Inclusion For Children With Hearing Loss: Are Excellent Speech and Language Skills Sufficient?

Fulcher¹,

Sargeant²,

Rosnay³

et al. 2021

Australas. j. spec. incl. educ.

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Many children with hearing loss have atypical social communication skills despite having age-appropriate speech and language. Graduate assessments in an early intervention program for children with hearing loss indicated that despite achieving language skills within typical limits for over a decade, social skills development was frequently delayed. Data gathered in 2007 and 2012 indicated the majority of children with hearing loss demonstrated poor acquisition of concepts linked to theory of mind (ToM), achieving either delayed or alternative acquisition patterns. A small-group 8-week social skills intervention program was subsequently implemented for graduating cohorts with the aim of developing and improving social interactions. In 2017, measures of ToM were collected for 15 children with hearing loss aged 4–6 years and compared to ToM 2007 and 2012 cohort data. An additional measure of social understanding and flexibility, a persuasion task, was also implemented. Although ToM skills for the majority of the 2017 cohort were found to be on par with hearing peers, and were better than skills demonstrated by the 2007 and 2012 graduates, ability to successfully participate in a socially significant persuasion task with a peer was delayed. Challenges and solutions to the development of age-appropriate social skills are proposed.

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Theory of mind, directly and indirectly, facilitates kindergarten adjustment via verbal ability, executive function, and emotion knowledge

Cited by 19 publications

References 61 publications

Emotion Knowledge, Theory of Mind, and Language in Young Children: Testing a Comprehensive Conceptual Model

Emotion Knowledge, Theory of Mind, and Language in Young Children: Testing a Comprehensive Conceptual Model

The Adaptive Test of Emotion Knowledge for 3-to 9-Year-Olds: Psychometric Properties and Validity

Communication That Leads to Successful Social Inclusion For Children With Hearing Loss: Are Excellent Speech and Language Skills Sufficient?

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