Abstract
Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) often experience emotional and social difficulties. In general, problems in social emotional functioning can be cognitively explained in terms of Theory of Mind (ToM). In this mini-review, an overview is provided of studies on social-emotional functioning and ToM in preschoolers (average age from 2.3 to 6.2 years) with SLI. It is concluded that, similar to school-aged children with SLI, preschoolers with SLI have several social-emotional problems and that both cognitive and affective aspects of ToM are impaired in those children. Based hereon, three possible causal models for the interrelation between language, ToM and social emotional functioning are put forward. It is proposed that future research on the construct and measurement of early ToM, social emotional functioning and language development in preschoolers with SLI is needed to achieve early detection, tailored treatment, and ultimately insight into the pathogenesis of SLI.
Highlights
Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) have often been reported to experience behavioral, emotional and social difficulties (Mawhood et al, 2000; Yew and O’Kearney, 2013; Helland et al, 2014)
The aim of this review is to provide an overview of state of the art evidence on social functioning and Theory of Mind (ToM) in preschoolers with SLI, to elaborate on theoretical and clinical implications of these empirical data and to give suggestions for future research
The ability to form a ToM is indispensable for mastering language and efficient communication and interaction (e.g., Baldwin and Moses, 2001)
Summary
Children with SLI have often been reported to experience behavioral, emotional and social difficulties (Mawhood et al, 2000; Yew and O’Kearney, 2013; Helland et al, 2014). During the second year of life, joint attention, imitation and pretend play develop, which can be taken as evidence for the understanding of others as intentional agents, the ability to form and coordinate representations of self and others, and the capacity to form meta representations (Leslie, 1987; Rogers and Pennington, 1991; Tomasello, 1995). At this stage, emotional recognition and mental state vocabulary start to develop (Astington and Baird, 2005). The aim of this review is to provide an overview of state of the art evidence on social functioning and ToM in preschoolers with SLI (average age range: 2.3–6.2 years), to elaborate on theoretical and clinical implications of these empirical data and to give suggestions for future research
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