(Mind-)reading skills in 9- to 10-year-olds: Prospective associations between Theory of Mind and text comprehension

• In Event: Theory of Mind and School Experiences in Children and Young Adolescents

Abstract

Theory of mind (ToM) refers to the mindreading skills that help individuals to understand how others think and feel. Individual differences in ToM have been associated with numerous social outcomes, including social competencies, the ability to form friendships, or peer popularity. A growing literature also links mature ToM skills to beneficial outcomes in the nonsocial, cognitive domain, in particular to academic abilities, including reading, mathematics, and science (for an overview, see Lecce & Devine, 2021). The present paper reports on the results of a one-year prospective study that investigates the association between children’s advanced ToM and their reading skills (text comprehension). Whereas prior work has identified associations between reading skills and ToM on a general level, the present study is the first to use a multi-component battery, asking which particular aspect of (advanced) ToM is related to the development of advanced reading skills.
The participants were N = 161 third and fourth graders, who participated in whole-class assessments of their advanced ToM, their reading skills, and their intelligence. Across both measurement points, advanced ToM was measured with a 15-item, multi-component battery assessing skills in (1) social reasoning, (2) reasoning about ambiguity, and (3) recognizing the transgression of a social norm (Osterhaus et al., 2016). Reading skills were measured by assessing children’s text comprehension with 20 items from a German-language, standardized reading test (Lenhard & Schneider, 2006). Finally, intelligence was assessed as a control measure using the progressive matrices from the Culture Fair Intelligence Test (Cattell, 1973).
The results revealed significant concurrent associations between children’s reading skills and only one of the three aspects of advanced ToM, which was social reasoning: In particular, there was a significant association in Grade 4 ( = .205, p = .038, controlling for concurrent intelligence), as well as a trend for a correlation in Grade 3 ( = .180, p = .053, again controlling for concurrent intelligence). No significant, independent associations emerged between children’s reading skills and any other aspect of advanced ToM (i.e., reasoning about ambiguity and recognizing transgressions of social norms). In addition to the concurrent associations between social reasoning and reading skills, there was a significant cross-lagged association, with social reasoning in Grade 3 predicting children’s reading skills in Grade 4 ( = .235, p = .017, controlling for intelligence in Grade 3). Reading skills in Grade 3 did however not predict social reasoning in Grade 4 ( = .094, p = .346, again controlling for intelligence in Grade 3). No cross-lagged associations emerged for any other aspects of advanced ToM.
These results show that children’s social reasoning is relevant for their development of mature reading skills. The differential findings for the three aspects of advanced ToM further suggest that reading skills improve as children begin to more effectively navigate the social domain, rather than resulting from a better ability to reason about ambiguity or to recognize transgressions of social norms. The potential mechanisms that link ToM and reading skills, as well as their relevance for elementary school education will be discussed.

Group Authors

Christopher Osterhaus,1 Susanne Koerber,2 & Serena Lecce3
1University of Vechta, 2Freiburg University of Education, 3University of Pavia

Authors

• Christopher Osterhaus, University of Vechta
  Presenting Author

• Susanne Koerber, Freiburg University of Education

• Serena Lecce, University of Pavia