Abstract
This study analysed children’s Theory of Mind (ToM) as assessed by mental state talk in oral narratives. We hypothesized that the children’s mental state talk in narratives has an underlying structure, with specific terms organized in clusters. Ninety-eight children attending the last year of kindergarten were asked to tell a story twice, at the beginning and at the end of the school year. Mental state talk was analysed by identifying terms and expressions referring to perceptual, physiological, emotional, willingness, cognitive, moral, and sociorelational states. The cluster analysis showed that children’s mental state talk is organized in two main clusters: perceptual states and affective states. Results from the study confirm the feasibility of narratives as an outlet to inquire mental state talk and offer a more fine-grained analysis of mental state talk structure.
Highlights
Theory of Mind (ToM) is “the recognition of one’s and others’ affective and epistemic mental states as the psychological causes and motives underlying behaviours (p. 1)” [1]
Children’s mental state talk was overall stable through the school year, except for two categories that increased over time: positive emotion states and sociorelational states
According to the paired-sample t-test, there was not a significant development in the quantity of mental state talk produced from the beginning through the end of the school year (p > 0.05)
Summary
Theory of Mind (ToM) is “the recognition of one’s and others’ affective and epistemic mental states as the psychological causes and motives underlying behaviours (p. 1)” [1]. Mental state talk was implemented to measure several aspects of ToM, including maternal mind-mindedness [12] and autism [13,14,15] and as evidence to ToM in several contexts, including mother-child conversations [16] and peer conversations [17]. Mental state talk is a more ecological instrument as it can be identified within children’s spontaneous oral and written production. It widens the range of mental states that can be identified and analysed (e.g., desires and feelings, beside the cognitive-related aspects of ToM) [6]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
