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Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 7:1 2002
© 2002 Oxford University Press

Empirical Article

Age and Language Skills of Deaf Children in Relation to Theory of Mind Development

Jean E. B. Lundy

Metropolitan State College of Denver

Using four traditional false-belief tasks, I investigated deaf children's age and expressive language skills in relation to their theory of mind development. The children's parents who signed reported on their own knowledge of a mental sign vocabulary. The results indicate age of the child to be strongly related to theory of mind development. Deaf children demonstrated an ability to pass the theory of mind assessment battery between the ages of 7 and 8 years, on average. In comparison, hearing children have consistently demonstrated the ability to perform such tasks between the ages of 4 and 5 years. Therefore, the results indicate deaf children are delayed by approximately 3 years in this cognitive developmental milestone. Expressive language skills of the children and sign language skills of the parents who signed were not found to be significantly related to the children's theory of mind development.

This article is based on my doctoral dissertation. Appreciation is extended to Janet Astington, who provided the misleading pictures presented to each subject as part of the theory of mind assessment battery. I also thank my dissertation committee members—John Luckner, Kay Ferrell, Patricia Lee, and Marilyn Welsh—for their thoughtful comments on the study.

Correspondence should be sent to Jean Lundy, Metropolitan State College of Denver, Department of Communication, Arts, and Sciences, P.O. Box 173362, Denver, CO 80217-3362 (e-mail: lundyje{at}mscd.edu).

Received January 28, 2001; revised April 9, 2001; accepted April 10, 2001


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