CDI scores as predictors of ToM development and other cognitive measures.

PÉREZ PEREIRA, M.; RESCHES, M.

Jena

Conferencia; 13th European Conference on Developmental Psychology; 2007

The use of parent reports (The MacArthur-Bates scales in particular) has re-emerged in recent years as a useful instrument for assessing language development. Parents may provide representative data of young children´s abilities, which otherwise would be difficult to evaluate. Early assessment of communicative and linguistic abilities in children facilitates studies of language as a predictor of later cognitive and linguistic abilities. In the last decade a number of studies proved that significant relationships between the linguistic abilities of children and their development of mind (ToM) exist (Astington & Baird, 2005).Correlational studies showed moderate to strong associations between different measures of linguistic abilities and the capacity for false belief understanding (Jenkins & Astington, 1996; Cutting & Dunn, 2000).Longitudinal (Astington & Tomasello, 2003; Hale & Tager Flusberg, 2003) suggest that language (syntactic and conversational abilities in particular) could have a casual role on ToM development.