This experimental research assessed the influence of graded levels of self-distancing--psychological distancing from one's egocentric perspective--on executive function (EF) in young children. Three- (n = 48) and 5-year-old (n = 48) children were randomly assigned to one of four manipulations of distance from the self (from proximal to distal:…

This study explored the development of theory of mind (ToM) in 80 Swedish-speaking 3- to 5-year-olds, a previously unstudied language and culture. The ToM scale was translated and tested in a Swedish context. The results show that the ToM abilities improve significantly with age. In addition, a gender difference was observed for the whole sample,…

When linguistic information alone does not clarify a speaker's intended meaning, skilled communicators can draw on a variety of cues to infer communicative intent. In this paper, we review research examining the developmental emergence of preschoolers' sensitivity to a communicative partner's perspective. We focus particularly on preschoolers'…

Traditional child-performance measures of theory of mind (ToM) are associated with several limitations. The Theory of Mind Inventory-2 (ToMI-2) is a new broadband caregiver-informant measure designed to tap children's ToM competence. The purposes of this pilot study were to (1) gather preliminary data to explore the scope of the ToM challenges…

This study investigates how individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) approach writing tasks. We draw from the largest sample of autistic individuals to date in our field to argue for the value of understanding ASD writers through the lens of neurodiversity. The neurodiversity approach focuses on autism as a part of human experience and…

This study illustrates the use of the Griffiths III Scales to further clarify a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder and possible Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder following a test battery of the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, Conners 3-Parent and Teacher Surveys, and the Goodenough-Harris Draw-a-Person test in a child aged 6 years. The…

This study investigated sensitivity to teacher and peer criticism among 89 Japanese 6-year-olds and examined the connection between sensitivity to criticism and first-order and second-order theory of mind separately. Participants completed a common test battery that included tasks assessing sensitivity to criticism (teacher or peer condition), the…

Mothers are essential facilitators of early Theory of Mind development and intrinsic to the acquisition, as well as the content, of many basic schemas learnt in infancy. In this article it is argued that the "mother" schema in children's literature can ease a child's transition into literary discourse by exploiting the child's…

In a hidden inequality context, resource allocators and resource recipients are unaware that an unknowingly advantaged recipient possesses resources. The present study presented children aged 3-13 years (N = 121) with a hidden inequality vignette involving an accidental transgression in which one resource claimant, who unknowingly possessed more…

We investigated 2 hypotheses of a recently proposed integrative theoretical model of reading, the direct and indirect effects model of reading (DIER; Kim, 2017b, 2019): (a) hierarchical relations and (b) dynamic relations (or differential relations) of skills to reading comprehension. Students were assessed on reading comprehension, word reading,…

This article investigates how children leverage intonational and gestural cues to an individual's belief state through unimodal (intonation-only or facial gesture-only) and multimodal (intonation + facial gesture) cues. A total of 187 preschoolers (ages 3-5) participated in a disbelief comprehension task and were assessed for Theory of Mind (ToM)…

We examine how understandings of ordinary and extraordinary communication develop. Three- to 10-year-old children and adults (N = 183) were given scenarios in which a protagonist wanted help from a human (their parent) or from God. Scenarios varied in whether protagonists expressed their desires aloud (by asking) or silently (by hoping), whether…

In their article "Mindfulness and discussing 'thorny' issues in the classroom" Konstantinos Alexakos et al. ("Cult Stud Sci Educ," 2016. doi: 10.1007/s11422-015-9718-0) describe "thorny" issues as "difficult topics to discuss because they are more personal to some perhaps even cause pain and violence." As…

The third-person belief ascription, "Marie believes that the contract is in the cabinet," may engender two interpretations: (1) It neutrally describes what is on Marie's mind and (2) it offers indirect evidence about reality, committing the speaker to the cabinet as the most likely location. The circumstances that lead to the evidential…

For more than two decades, research has focused on the understanding of pretence as an important means for young children to conceptualise the mind. Many use the phrase "mental representation" to a mental model of some entity or concept, which describes what is inside the minds of young children in relation to a real-world situation or…