SES Variations in the Mental State Vocabulary Used and Heard by Young Children in Family Interactions

MIGDALEK, MAIA; ROSEMBERG, CELIA RENATA; STEIN, ALEJANDRA; ALAM, FLORENCIA; RESCHES, MARIELA

Lyon

Congreso; 14th International Congress for the Study of Child Language; 2017

Parental mental state talk has received considerable attention due to it?s relationship to children?s development of ToM. Theory of Mind (ToM) refers to the child´s ability to attribute mental states to self and others (i.e., desires, beliefs and feelings) in order to predict and explain behavior (Ensor & Hughes, 2008; Devine & Hughes,2016). Previous research has shown that the caregiver´s amount, diversity and discursive use of mental-state language can give way to children?s individual differences in ToM abilities (Carpendale & Lewis, 2006; de Rosnay & Hughes, 2006; Howard, Mayeux & Naigles, 2008; Ruffman, Slade & Crowe, 2002). However, other environmental correlations of ToM, like family SES has been less studied. Most of research in this field has been carried out with middle SES populations (Devine & Hughes, 2016). Little is known about the mental state language to which urban marginalized- children are exposed to in family interactions.