Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 6:2 2001
© 2001 Oxford University Press
Empirical Articles |
Theory of Mind Development in Deaf Children: A Nonverbal Test of False-Belief Understanding
Russell Cairns Unit, Radcliffe Infirmary
University of Oxford
Our aim in this study was to investigate whether previous findings pointing to a delay in deaf children's theory of mind development are replicated when linguistic demands placed on the deaf child are minimized in a nonverbal version of standard false-belief tasks. Twenty-four prelingually deaf, orally trained children born of hearing parents were tested with both a verbal and a nonverbal version of a false-belief task. Neither the younger (range: 4 years 7 months–6 years 5 months) nor the older (range: 6 years 9 months–11 years 11 months) children of the final sample of 21 children performed above chance in the verbal task. The nonverbal task significantly facilitated performance in children of all ages. Despite this facilitation, we observed a developmental delay: only the older group performed significantly above chance in the nonverbal false-belief task, even though the younger children were at the average age when hearing children normally pass standard false-belief tests. We discuss these findings in light of the hypothesis that language development and conversational competence are crucial to the acquisition of a theory of mind.
The research contained in this article was conducted while the first author was at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3UD. We thank all the children who participated in this study and their families. We are grateful to the following schools and educational centers for their willingness to collaborate in this research and their facilitation of the testing procedure: Escola St. Ot, Escola El Sagrer, and CEE Josep Pla (Barcelona); CREDA Comarques I (Vic); CREDA Vallès (Sabadell); CREDA Baix Llobregat; CEIP Montbou (Igualada); and EEE La Maçana (Girona). We thank Dr. N. Silvestre for her encouragement and her vital help in seeking the schools’ support, and Kirsty Barlow for useful discussions. We especially thank Virginia Costa for being an excellent "hider" and an enthusiastic assistant.
Received September 11, 2000; revised November 2, 2000; accepted November 5, 2000
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