Child and mother mental-state talk in shared pretense as predictors of children...

• Autor(es): Osório, Ana Alexandra Caldas ; Meins, Elizabeth ; Martins, Carla ; Martins, Eva Costa ; Soares, Isabel
• Data: 2012
• Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/22353
• Origem: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
• Assunto(s): Symbolic play; Mental-state talk; Pretense
• Tipo de Documento: Artigo
• Idioma: Inglês

Descrição

This study investigated relations between mother and child (N = 49) mental-state talk during shared pretense and children’s social symbolic play at age 3. Social symbolic play was not related to mothers’ mental-state talk. In contrast, children’s own use of desire-state talk in shared pretense was a better predictor of social symbolic play than their general use of mental-state talk, even after accounting for general verbal ability as well as mothers’ use of desires terms. Conclusion: These results highlight for the first time a link between children’s references to desires and their performance on social symbolic play at age 3 years – a social cognitive ability thought to precede theory of mind.