Research has shown that theory of mind tends to develop in typically-developing children at about the age of 4 years. However, language appears to play a great role in this, particularly as deaf children, particularly those born to hearing parents, display extreme delays in theory of mind development, while bilinguals have been found to develop at a somewhat faster rate than monolinguals. Additionally, effects of culture on theory of mind development remain somewhat unclear, as there have been mixed results in past research. Theory of mind has also been correlated with metalinguistic ability and executive functioning skills, leading to multiple hypotheses regarding what drives theory of mind development. The aim of this doctoral thesis was to examine the relationships between theory of mind, metalinguistic awareness, and executive functioning, as well as to evaluate how language and culture play a role in these relationships. Four studies were conducted in an attempt to seek answers to six research questions surrounding this aim. Study1 evaluated theory of mind, metalinguistic awareness, and executive functioning among hearing nursery children in Central Scotland. Study 2 was aimed at evaluating these same skills among deaf children in the U.S. and U.K., as well as developing a scaling of theory of mind abilities among deaf children. Study 3 assessed these skills among deaf Ghanaian children, as well as evaluating theory of mind abilities among a group of hearing Ghanaian children. Finally, Study 4 compared monolingual and bilingual children on theory of mind, metalinguistic awareness, and executive functioning. Results show that there is a strong link between theory of mind and metalinguistic awareness among hearing children that is not explained by executive functioning skills. This relationship was not apparent among deaf children, who struggle more with theory of mind than metalinguistic awareness. The deaf children in Ghana were delayed compared to their Western peers; hearing Ghanaian children were delayed compared to their Western peers as well, but only slightly. Bilingual children and monolingual children performed similarly on false belief and set-shifting tasks; however, monolingual children outperformed bilinguals on metalinguistic awareness and inhibition tasks, possibly due to low verbal mental age among the monolinguals. Results of the four studies suggest that language does play a part in the relationship between theory of mind and metalinguistic awareness. Due to limited data, cultural effects remain unclear. It is proposed that deaf children’s struggle with theory of mind stems from their difficulty with abstract concepts.

I denna kvalitativa intervjustudie har fem förskoleklasspedagoger beskrivit sina upplevelser av att arbeta med kartläggning av elevers språkliga medvetenhet i förskoleklass. Frågorna har handlat om vad de tillfrågade pedagogerna anser syftet är med kartläggning samt hur de arbetar före, under och efter en kartläggningssituation i svenska. Deras tankar kring det nya kartläggningsmaterialet Hitta språket har också efterfrågats. Urvalet har bestått av bekvämlighetsurval bestående av pedagoger i förskoleklass som arbetat minst ett år. Intervjuerna har sedan transkriberats och analyserats utifrån det sociokulturella perspektivet med hjälp av en tematisk analys.Resultatet visar att lärarna är positivt inställda till kartläggningens syfte. Arbetet före, under och efter en kartläggning ser olika ut beroende på vad pedagogerna tolkar som hjälp till eleverna samt hur/om de väljer att applicera resultatet på sin undervisning. Den aspekt som lärarna är mest kritiska till är den tid och utbildning de fått för att lära känna det nya materialet innan det ska börja användas / In this qualitative interview study five preschoolteachers have described their experiences of working with the mapping of students ' linguistic awareness in preschool.  The questions has been about what they think the purpose of mapping students is and also how they described their work before, during and after a mappingsituation in swedish. Their thoughts about the new mappingmaterial Hitta språket have also been asked. The sample consisted of comfort selection with educators in the preschool class who had worked at least one year. The interviews have then been transcribed and analysed according to the socio-cultural perspective with the help of a thematic analysis.  The result shows that the teachers are favourably disposed to the purpose of mapping. Work before, during and after mapping is very different depending on what educators, interprets as help to the students and how/if they choose to apply the result on their teaching. The aspect the teachers were most critical to is the time issue and training they received to get to know the new material before they will start using it.

Huang, Aijun. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 157-166). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Acknowledgement --- p.i / List of tables and figures --- p.vi / Abstract --- p.viii / 摘要 --- p.x / Chapter CHAPTER ONE --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Outline of the thesis --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Organization of the thesis --- p.9 / Chapter CHAPTER TWO --- Count-mass distinction and acquisition issues --- p.12 / Chapter 2.0 --- Introduction --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1 --- "Syntactic, semantic and ontological aspects of the count-mass distinction" --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2 --- Semantic account of the count-mass distinction --- p.17 / Chapter 2.3 --- Syntactic account of the count-mass distinction --- p.19 / Chapter 2.4 --- Acquisition of the count-mass distinction --- p.23 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Semantic account of the acquisition of the count-mass distinction --- p.23 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Syntactic account of the acquisition of the count-mass distinction --- p.26 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Excursion into the syntactic account of the acquisition of the count-mass distinction --- p.31 / Chapter CHAPTER THREE --- Interpretation of bare nouns and classifiers in Chinese and review of the acquisition of Chinese classifiers --- p.39 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.39 / Chapter 3.2 --- Interpretation of bare nouns in Chinese --- p.39 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Bare nouns in Chinese are unspecified in number and individuation --- p.39 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Arguments against a lexically-based count-mass distinction in Chinese nouns --- p.43 / Chapter 3.3 --- Dimensions of classifiers --- p.48 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Taxonomy of classifiers --- p.48 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Quantification function of classifiers: classifiers as units of measures --- p.52 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Individuation function of classifiers: a distinction between individuating classifiers and non-individuating classifiers --- p.54 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- Classification function of classifiers --- p.58 / Chapter 3.3.5 --- "Relation between the quantification, individuation and classification functions of classifiers" --- p.60 / Chapter 3.4 --- Arguments against Cheng and Sybesma´ةs (1998，1999，2005) account of the count- mass distinction in Chinese --- p.62 / Chapter 3.5 --- Review of the acquisition of Chinese classifiers --- p.68 / Chapter 3.5.1 --- Preponderant use of the general classifier ge: early acquisition of the quantification function of classifiers --- p.69 / Chapter 3.5.2 --- Delayed mastery of specific classifiers --- p.70 / Chapter 3.5.3 --- Acquisition order of individual classifiers and non-individual classifiers --- p.73 / Chapter 3.5.4 --- Experiments on children´ةs sensitivity to the distinction between count classifiers and mass classifiers --- p.75 / Chapter CHAPTER FOUR --- Experiments on the acquisition of individual classifiers and container classifiers --- p.86 / Chapter 4.0 --- Setting the stage --- p.86 / Chapter 4.1 --- General introduction of research questions and experimental design --- p.88 / Chapter 4.2 --- Experiment 1: Acquisition of individual classifiers and bare nouns --- p.95 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- "Subjects, Material and test items" --- p.95 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- Procedures --- p.101 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Findings in Experiment 1 --- p.105 / Chapter 4.2.3.1 --- Interpretation of number and quantification function of classifiers in the individual classifier and the bare noun contexts --- p.105 / Chapter 4.2.3.2 --- Interpretation of partial object situations in the individual classifier and the bare noun contexts --- p.109 / Chapter 4.3 --- Experiment 2: Acquisition of container classifiers --- p.116 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- Method --- p.117 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Findings in Experiment 2 --- p.124 / Chapter 4.3.2.1 --- Interpretation of the quantification function of container classifiers --- p.124 / Chapter 4.3.2.2 --- Interpretation of noun denotation in the container classifier context --- p.127 / Chapter 4.4 --- Experiment 3: Acquisition the general classifier ge paired with substance situations --- p.131 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Method --- p.132 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Findings in Experiment 3 --- p.134 / Chapter 4.5 --- Summary of the findings in Experiment 1，Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 --- p.139 / Chapter CHAPTER FIVE --- General discussion --- p.144 / Chapter 5.1 --- Count-mass distinction in Chinese revisited --- p.145 / Chapter 5.2 --- Quantification and individuation in the acquisition of noun denotations --- p.150 / Chapter 5.3 --- Further research --- p.155 / References --- p.157 / Appendix 1 List of test sentences used in Experiment 1 --- p.167 / Appendix 2 List of test sentences used in Experiment 2 --- p.170 / Appendix 3 List of test sentences used in Experiment 3 --- p.172 / Appendix 4 Pictures of whole and partial objects paired with individual classifiers and bare nouns in Experiment 1 --- p.173 / Appendix 5 Pictures of whole and partial objects and substances paired with container classifiers used in Experiment 2 --- p.174 / Appendix 6 Picture of substance situations with or without a container paired with the general classifier ge in Experiment 3 --- p.175

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of the quantity of adult language input on their deaf and hard-of-hearing preschool children and to explore the effects, if any, on the child’s quantity of language, vocabulary development, and basic concept understanding. Using audio recording and the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) software, the study involved 30 preschool children with hearing loss who used spoken language as their communication modality and 7 children with normal hearing. Their language and the language spoken to them in all waking-hours of a two-day period (16 hours per day) were recorded and analyzed quantitatively as adult word counts (AWC), child vocalizations (CVC), and conversational turns (CTC). These components were compared to the child’s performance on the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts (BTBC-3) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-4) to investigate if the quantity of language input had an effect on the child’s usage of vocabulary and basic concepts. Correlations were found between the amount of adult words, child vocalizations, and conversational turns across weekends and weekdays, but not on BTBC-3 or PPVT-4 scores. Interestingly, there were no significant differences between adult word counts and child vocalizations as a function of the child’s hearing loss, indicating parents of deaf or hard-of-hearing children are using as many words with their children as parents of children with normal hearing. Additionally, scores on the BTBC-3 and PPVT-4 were correlated with each other, but there wasn’t a statistically significant difference between the mean scores for children with normal hearing and the children with hearing loss, indicating both groups scored similarly on the assessment. Results from this study suggest the language used around children impacts their language use and the amount of interactions they have in their environment. This is significant because it identifies the influence of the quantity of adult language input on the child’s language development.

Liu, Duo. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-147). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese; appendix in Chinese.

Children’s interaction with their caregivers is severely restricted by blindness, but evidence of effects on their early language development is controversial. This seems partly due to the difficulties inherent in studying this low-incidence disability and partly to conflicting views of early language development and the role of maternal input. The defined focus area of my research, reviewed in the overarching statement in this portfolio, is the investigation of early interaction and how blindness affects maternal input, emotional availability, and children’s early word use. The broader context of my work is early language development for all children. At the centre of my studies are four mother-child dyads who were studied from the time the children were 18-19 months old and just beginning to use words, and then followed through until around the time of the children’s second birthday. The studies show that these mothers were no more directive than mothers whose children were sighted, but that they made few adaptations to their children’s particular needs for frequent and relevant information about the world around them. This portfolio provides an overarching statement of issues and research findings from studies of maternal interaction with young children who are blind, within the context of issues in early language development and early intervention. To represent the scope of my work, the examples of my refereed publications include those that are research-based as well as those that are more generally related to professional practice. This more general writing for teachers and caregivers provides an essential link between theory and practice. The studies of children with blindness inform, and have been informed by, current understanding of what is significant in early development for all children. Thus the significance of the work presented lies not only in the contribution to the research literature, but also in the potential for informing intervention practice and timely support for families. / Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M. Communication Pathology)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Summary in English and Afrikaans. Includes bibliographical references.