title: Mind what mother says: narrative input and theory of mind in typical children and those on the autism spectrum.
abstract: In 2 studies mothers read wordless storybooks to their preschool-aged children; narratives were analyzed for mental state language. Children's theory-of-mind understanding (ToM) was concurrently assessed. In Study 1, children's (N=30; M age 3 years 9 months) ToM task performance was significantly correlated with mothers' explanatory, causal, and contrastive talk about cognition, but not with mothers' simple mentions of cognition. In Study 2, the same pattern was found in an older sample of typically developing children (N=24; M age 4 years 7 months), whereas for children on the autism spectrum (N=24; M age 6 years 7.5 months), ToM task performance was uniquely correlated with mothers' explanatory, causal, and contrastive talk about emotions.
authors.affiliation: University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. vps@psy.uq.edu.au
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Slaughter
authors.forename: Candida C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Peterson
authors.forename: Emily
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mackintosh
mesh_terms: D000339:Affect; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D033262:Narration