Theory of mind in Reading Development
Research on pre-school precursors of reading comprehension is limited, with
most work focusing on cognitive factors from mid-childhood. This talk will
present results from a longitudinal study, from pre-school (aged 4 years) to Year
1 (aged 6 years), investigating potential cognitive and social cognitive factors
underpinning reading comprehension in early readers. Specifically, it will focus
on the relation between children’s theory of mind (ToM) and emergent reading
comprehension. Results suggest that through the early educational years ToM
indirectly predicts reading comprehension through facilitating language skills.
Importantly, however, results also show that only pre-school ToM at four years
old directly predicted later reading comprehension at six years old. Findings are
discussed in terms of the Simple View of Reading and the potential benefits of
including ToM in models of reading comprehension.