Stepping stones to others' minds: Maternal talk relates to child mental state language and emotion understanding at 15, 24, and 33 months

Child Development

Volumn 79, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 284-302

  Taumoepeau, Mele ^a   Ruffman, Ted ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO   (New Zealand)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AFFECT; ARTICLE; COGNITION; CONCEPT FORMATION; FEMALE; FOLLOW UP; HUMAN; INFANT; LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT; MALE; MENTAL FUNCTION; MOTHER CHILD RELATION; PERCEPTION; PRESCHOOL CHILD; VERBAL BEHAVIOR;

AFFECT; CHILD LANGUAGE; CHILD, PRESCHOOL; COGNITION; CONCEPT FORMATION; FEMALE; FOLLOW-UP STUDIES; HUMANS; INFANT; MALE; MENTAL PROCESSES; MOTHER-CHILD RELATIONS; SOCIAL PERCEPTION; VERBAL BEHAVIOR;

EID: 41149181408     PISSN: 00093920     EISSN: 14678624     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01126.x     Document Type: Article

References (58)

1. Astington, J. (1996). What is theoretical about a child's theory of mind? A Vygotskian perspective. In P. Curruthers P. Smith (Eds Theories of theories of mind (pp. 184 199). Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press.
2. Baldwin, D. A. (1991). Infants' contribution to the achievement of joint reference. Child Development, 62, 875 890.
3. Bartsch, K. Wellman, H. M. (1995). Children talk about the mind. Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press.
4. Bates, E. Goodman, J. C. (1999). On the emergence of grammar from the lexicon. In B. MacWhinney (Ed The emergence of language (pp. 29 79). Mahwah, NJ : Erlbaum.
5. Beeghly, M., Bretherton, I. Mervis, C 1986). Mothers' internal state language to toddlers. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 4, 247 261.
6. Booth, J. R., Hall, W. S., Robison, G. C. Kim, S. Y. (1997). Acquisition of the mental state verb "know" by 2- to 5-year-old children. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 26, 581 603.
7. Bretherton, I. Beeghly, M 1982). Talking about internal states: The acquisition of an explicit theory of mind. Developmental Psychology, 18, 906 921.
8. Brown, J. Dunn, J 1991). "You can cry, mum": The social and developmental implications of talk about internal states. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 9, 237 256.
9. Carpendale, J. Lewis, M 2004). Constructing an understanding of mind: The development of children's social understanding within social interaction. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 27, 79 151.
10. Chiat, S 1986). Personal pronouns. In P. Fletcher M. Garman (Eds Language acquisition: Studies in first langauge development (pp. 339 355). Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press.
11. De Rosnay, M 2003). Children's understanding of emotion: The roles of attachment and maternal discourse. Unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Oxford.
12. De Rosnay, M., Pons, F., Harris, P. Morrell, J 2004). A lag between understanding false belief and emotion attribution in young children: Relationships with linguistic ability and mothers' mental-state language. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 22, 197 218.
13. Dunn, J 1988). The beginnings of social understanding. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press.
14. Dunn, J., Bretherton, I. Munn, P 1987). Conversations about feeling states between mothers and their young children. Developmental Psychology, 23, 132 139.
15. Edwards, S., Fletcher, P., Garman, M., Hughes, A., Letts, C. Sinka, I 1997). The Reynell Developmental Scales III: The University of Reading Edition. Windsor, Canada : NFER-Nelson.
16. Ekman, P. Freisen, W. V. (1976). Pictures of facial affect. Palo Alto, CA : Consulting Psychologists Press.
17. Fenson, L., Dale, P., Reznick, J. S., Thal, D., Bates, E., Hartung, J., et al 1993). MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: User's guide and technical manual. San Diego, CA : Singular Publishing.
18. Fenson, L., Marchman, V. A., Thal, D., Dale, P. S., Bates, E., and Reznick, J. S 2007). The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories: Level III: User's guide and technical manual (2nd ed Baltimore : Brookes.
19. Fernald, A 1985). Four-month-old infants prefer to listen to motherese. Infant Behavior and Development, 8, 181 195.
20. Fernyhough, C 1996). The dialogic mind: A dialogic approach to the higher mental functions. New Ideas in Psychology, 14, 47 62.
21. Gergely, G. Csibra, G 2003). Teleological reasoning in infancy: The naive theory of rational action. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7, 287 292.
22. Gopnik, A. Astington, J 1988). Children's understanding of representational change and its relation to the understanding of false belief and the appearance-reality distinction. Child Development, 59, 26 37.
23. Harris, P 1991). The work of the imagination. In A. Whiten (Ed Natural theories of mind (pp. 283 304). Oxford, UK : Basil Blackwell.
24. Harris, P 1996). Desires, beliefs, and language. In P. Curruthers P. Smith (Eds Theories of theories of mind (pp. 200 220). Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press.
25. Harris, P 2005a). Conversation, pretense, and theory of mind. In J. Astington J. Baird (Eds Why language matters for theory of mind (pp. 70 83). Oxford, UK : Oxford University Press.
26. Harris, P 2005b). Language and children's understanding of mental states. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 69 73.
27. Hughes, C., Jaffee, S., Happé, F., Taylor, A., Caspi, A. Moffitt, T 2005). Origins of individual differences in theory of mind: From nature to nurture? Child Development, 76, 356 370.
28. Huttenlocher, J., Smiley, P. Charney, R 1983). Emergence of action categories in the child: Evidence from verb meanings. Psychological Review, 90, 72 93.
29. Jenkins, J. M., Turrell, S. L., Kogushi, Y., Lollis, S. Ross, H. S. (2003). A longitudinal investigation of the dynamics of mental state talk in families. Child Development, 74, 905 920.
30. Johnson, C 1988). Theory of mind and the structure of conscious experience. In J. Astington, P. Harris D. Olson (Eds Developing theories of mind (pp. 47 63). Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press.
31. Kitamura, C., Thanavishuth, C., Burnham, D. Luksaneeyanawin, S 2002). Universality and specificity in infant-directed speech: Pitch modifications as a function of infant age and sex in a tonal and non-tonal language. Infant Behavior & Development, 24, 372 392.
32. Kuhl, P., Andruski, J., Chistovich, I., Chistovich, L., Kozhevnikova, E., Ryskina, V., et al 1997). Cross-language analysis of phonetic units in language addressed to infants. Science, 277, 684.
33. Leslie, A., Friedman, O. German, T 2004). Core mechanisms in "theory of mind." Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8, 528 533.
34. Lewis, M. Ramsay, D 2004). Development of self-recognition, personal pronoun use, and pretend play during the 2nd year. Child Development, 75, 1821 1831.
35. Meins, E. Fernyhough, C 1999). Linguistic acquisitional style and mentalising development: The role of maternal mind-mindedness. Cognitive Development, 14, 363 380.
36. Meins, E., Fernyhough, C., Wainwright, R., Clark-Carter, D., Das Gupta, M., Fradley, E., et al 2003). Pathways to understanding mind: Construct validity and predictive validity of maternal mind-mindedness. Child Development, 74, 1194 1211.
37. Meins, E., Fernyhough, C., Wainwright, R., Gupta, M. D., Fradley, E. Tuckey, M 2002). Maternal mind-mindedness and attachment security as predictors of theory of mind understanding. Child Development, 73, 1715 1726.
38. Meltzoff, A. N. (1995). Understanding the intentions of others: Re-enactment of intended acts by 18-month old children. Developmental Psychology, 31, 838 850.
39. O'Neill, M., Bard, K., Linnell, M. Fluck, M 2005). Maternal gestures with 20-month-old infants in two contexts. Developmental Science, 8, 352 359.
40. Perner, J 1991). Understanding the representational mind. Cambridge, MA : MIT Press.
41. Perner, J. Ruffman, T 2005). Infants' insight into the mind: How deep? Science, 308, 214 216.
42. Phillips, A. Wellman, H 2005). Infants' understanding of object-directed action. Cognition, 98, 137 155.
43. Phillips, A. T., Wellman, H. M. Spelke, E. S. (2002). Infants' ability to connect gaze and emotional expression to intentional action. Cognition, 85, 53 78.
44. Ricard, M., Girouard, P. Decarie, T 1999). Personal pronouns and perspective taking in toddlers. Journal of Child Language, 26, 681 697.
45. Ridgeway, D., Waters, E. Kuczaj, S 1985). Acquisition of emotion-descriptive language: Receptive and productive vocabulary norms for ages 18 months to 6 years. Developmental Psychology, 21, 901 908.
46. Rogoff, B. Wertsch, J 1984). Children's learning in the "zone of proximal development." San Francisco : Jossey-Bass.
47. Ruffman, T. Perner, J 2005). Do infants really understand false belief? Response to Leslie. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 462 463.
48. Ruffman, T., Slade, L. Crowe, E 2002). The relation between children's and mothers' mental state language and theory-of-mind understanding. Child Development, 73, 734 751.
49. Ruffman, T., Slade, L., Devitt, K. Crowe, E 2006). What mothers say and what they do: The relation between parenting, theory of mind, language and conflict/cooperation. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24, 105 124.
50. Smiley, P. Huttenlocher, J 1989). Young children's acquisition of emotion concepts. In C. Saarni P. L. Harris (Eds Children's understanding of emotion (pp. 27 49). Cambridge, UK : Cambridge University Press.
51. Sullivan, S. Ruffman, T 2004). Emotion recognition deficits in the elderly. International Journal of Neuropsychology, 114, 94 102.
52. Taumoepeau, M. Ruffman, T 2006). Mother and infant talk about mental states relates to desire language and emotion understanding. Child Development, 77, 465 481.
53. Tottenham, N., Barscheid, A., Ellertsen, K., Marcus, D. J. Nelson, C. A. (2002, April). Categorization of facial expression in children and adults: Establishing a larger stimulus set. Poster presentation at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting, San Francisco.
54. Vygotsky, L 1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press.
55. Wellman, H 1990). The child's theory of mind. Cambridge, MA : MIT Press.
56. Wellman, H. Woolley, J 1990). From simple desires to ordinary beliefs: The early development of everyday psychology. Cognition, 35, 245 275.
57. Wimmer, H. Perner, J 1983). Beliefs about beliefs: Representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children's understanding of deception. Cognition, 13, 103 128.
58. Woodward, A. L., Sommerville, J. A. Guajardo, J. J. (2001). How infants make sense of intentional action. In B. F. Malle, L. J. Moses D. Baldwin (Eds Intentions and intentionality: Foundations of social cognition (pp. 149 169). Cambridge, MA : MIT Press.