No description available.

This thesis presents a three-phase longitudinal study of naïve psychology and pretend play behaviour development between preschool children in the United Kingdom (UK) and Singapore. Research conducted in the Western contexts has shown that children develop an understanding of pretence and desires at 18 months of age (e.g. Nielsen & Dissanayake, 2004; Repacholi & Gopnik, 1997), before level-1 visual perspective-taking at 2½ years of age (e.g. Flavell, Everett, Croft, & Flavell, 1981) and followed by level-2 visual perspective-taking, appearance-reality distinction and false-belief understanding at 4 years of age (e.g. Flavell et al., 1981; Flavell, Flavell, & Green, 1983; Wellman, Cross, & Watson, 2001). A major issue that has dominated the field for many years concerns whether naïve psychology follows a universal developmental pattern. The majority of the studies to date have tended to rely heavily on false-belief understanding as an index of children’s understanding of mental representation. Some cross-cultural results have shown that the onset of false-belief understanding coincides with Western norms (e.g. Callaghan et al., 2005) whereas several non-Western studies have demonstrated a time lag in development across cultural groups (e.g. Vinden, 1999). To date no longitudinal study comparing the development of other naïve psychology concepts from 2 to 4 years of age between diverse cultures has been published. The present study aims to address the gap in the literature by tracking longitudinally and comparing the developmental patterns of children’s understanding of a range of naïve psychology concepts in the UK and Singapore at 2½, 3 and 3½ years of age (phases I, II and III respectively). Singapore with its mixed blend of Eastern and Western values represents a unique case for comparative study. This study employed a repeated-measures design, incorporating a large battery of established tasks that tapped children’s understanding of pretence, desires, visual perceptions and beliefs. In addition, a semi-structured observational approach was employed to study children’s naturally occurring pretend play behaviour. A total of 87 children were recruited in the UK (M = 28.60 months, SD = 1.90) and Singapore (M = 29.89, SD = 2.76) in the first phase of study. Of the initial sample, 36 children (M = 42.75, SD = 1.84) in the UK cohort and 38 children (M = 43.68, SD = 2.79) in the Singapore cohort participated in all three phases of the study. This thesis has five research questions. The first question relates to the extent to which acquisition of naïve psychology concepts differ between the two cultures at 2½ years of age. The baseline results reported in Chapter 5 indicate that 2½-year-old children in both cohorts acquired a rudimentary understanding of some aspects of pretence, discrepant desires, action prediction, emotion prediction and level-1 visual perspective-taking. The results showed no gross cross-cultural differences. However, subtle cross-cultural differences in children’s understanding of discrepant desires and action prediction were found. The second question addresses longitudinal cross-cultural differences in naïve psychology development between 2½, 3 and 3½ years of age. The results presented in Chapter 6 reveal cultural similarities in children’s performance on several pretence understanding, the level-2 visual perspective-taking, the appearance-reality distinction and the false-belief explanation tasks. Nonetheless, cultural differences were observed in some aspects of naïve psychology. The UK cohort performed significantly better than the Singapore cohort in the unexpected transfer false-belief prediction task at 3½ years of age, after verbal mental age (VMA) and gender were treated as covariates. Additionally, the UK cohort achieved significantly higher total mean for the level-1 visual perspective-taking task across the three phases and the mental representation in pretence task across phases II and III. In contrast, the Singapore cohort scored significantly higher in total mean for the discrepant desires task across the three phases. The third question considers longitudinal differences in children’s understanding of knowledge-ignorance and beliefs from 3 to 3½ years of age. The analysis in Chapter 7 indicates that the Singapore cohort performed significantly more poorly than the UK cohort in understanding knowledge-ignorance attribution (for the false-belief prediction and falsebelief explanation tasks) and true-belief ascription (for the false-belief explanation task) across phases II and III, after VMA and gender were considered as covariates. Comparison of children’s false-belief prediction and justification scores revealed that the cross-cultural difference in false-belief prediction related to an explicit ability to predict false-belief without concurrent ability to justify a naïve character’s behaviour based on false-beliefs. Twenty-four (66.7%) and 11 (28.9%) children in the UK and Singapore cohorts respectively were able to make correct false-belief prediction at 3½ years of age. Among these children, only six and five children from the UK and Singapore cohorts respectively provided correct justifications on the basis of false-beliefs. These findings therefore indicated cultural similarities in that the same number of children in both cohorts was able to predict and justify other’s behaviour in terms of false-beliefs. The fourth question explores the degree to which presence of sibling(s), birth order, language (VMA) and bilingualism contribute to individual differences in naïve psychology development. The results in Chapter 8 show no evidence that presence of sibling(s) and birth order facilitated understanding of action prediction, discrepant desires, level-1 visual perspective-taking, mental representation in pretence and false-belief prediction in either cohort. With respect to the role of language in children’s naïve psychology development, there were concurrent (within phase) associations between VMA and false-belief prediction at 3½ years of age and longitudinal associations between VMA at 2½ years of age and falsebelief prediction at 3½ years of age for both cohorts. These findings suggest that language ability contributes to individual differences in false-belief understanding. It is worth highlighting that not all aspects of naïve psychology and VMA were related. The fifth and final question focuses on longitudinal cross-cultural similarities and differences in pretend play behaviour and examines the links between pretend play behaviour and naïve psychology development. The observational data in Chapter 9 reveal that the Singaporean children spent significantly more time engaged in non-pretend play and non-social pretend play at 2½ years of age whereas the UK children spent significantly more time engaged in social pretend play. This finding contrasted with the marked cultural differences in naïve psychology development found at 3 and 3½ years of age. It is important to note that the UK and Singaporean children showed similar developmental sequences from non-pretend to non-social pretend and finally to social pretend play behaviour and from simple to complex forms of social pretend play behaviour. With respect to other pretend play behaviour, the UK children spent significantly more time engaged in positive complementary bids, negative conflict, other forms of pretence, metacommunication and in the pretend theme of outings, holiday and weather across all phases than the Singaporean children. The associations between some early pretend play behaviour and later acquisition of some naïve psychology concepts for both cultures provide partial support for the proposition that pretend play behaviour is an early marker of understanding mental representation.

In the current study children 3-5 years of age (N = 75) participated in a mental state task to investigate the effect of action saliency on young children's appreciation of mental states during pretend play activities. They also engaged in a parent-child interaction period, including storybook reading and pretend play activities, in order to examine the relation between mental state term utterances and performance on the mental state task. Two actors appeared side-by-side on a television screen, either in motion or as static images; one actor had knowledge of the animal he was pretending to be; the other actor did not have the same knowledge. The actors' behaviors were identical and related to the behavior of the animal, identical and unrelated, or the knowledgeable actor behaved contradictory to the animal's behavior while the unknowledgeable actor behaved appropriately for that animal. Children were asked to select the actor who was pretending to be the animal. Children selected the appropriate knowledgeable actor significantly more often than a non-knowledgeable actor. Older children performed better than younger children. Children's performance was unaffected by whether actors were shown in motion as compared to simply a static image. Children performed most successfully on trials where actors were both engaged in behaviors unrelated to the animal's behavior and poorest when the actor's behavior was contradictory to his knowledge. The mental state utterances of parents and children were correlated with the children's performance on the mental state task. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed parent's mental state utterances used during the parent-child interactions - specifically cognitive terms and modulations of assertion - were predictive of their children's performance on the mental state task. The current study's results support an understanding of the mind in pretend play activities by some children younger than five years of age and this understanding may be influenced by their parents' use of mental state language. Children who do not do well in appreciating that the mind is essential during pretense activities may have difficulty inhibiting responding to action, thus interfering with their ability to maintain focus on the mental state of the pretender.

New research shows that adult participation in children’s play is beneficial for learning and development in early childhood. It is particularly socio-dramatic narrative play, in which children and adults co-construct the play events that is beneficial. Research also shows that teachers in the Swedish preschool tend not play with children. The Swedish Education Act and the Swedish Preschool Curriculum contain goals to strive for, specifically regarding play. Greater efforts and insight is needed to pave the way to increase the benefits for children through the use of play (Broström, 2017). The purpose of this study is to develop knowledge that contributes to understanding of the relationship between pretend play and children’s’ learning and development, as well as the development of preschool didactic and pedagogical activities based on this knowledge. To achieve this aim we drew on Cultural Historical Activity Theory to develop and conduct a case study at a municipal preschool. Data was gathered through observations of preschool children and staff in two units and through individual, semi-structured interviews with eight preschool teachers. We found that the preschool teachers rarely engaged fully in children’s play; however, when they did engage with the children in play, their involvement ranged from a slight involvement, to being a stage hand in the play, or being passively engaged in joint play with children. Our cultural-historical analyses revealed mediating activities that have an effect on if and how teachers engage in play with children. We conclude by arguing that teachers need more education about what type of adult child joint play that is beneficial and that the preschool directors have an important job to help manage the preschool teachers time and provide opportunities for them to reflect and document their work in such way that more time could be set apart for them to commit to being fully engaged with children in narrative pretend play.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The effect of pretend play on 150 (~ 75 girls; 75 boys; M=3 yro) preschool children’s social cognition will be assessed through a semester long intervention study. Research has reported a trend of female superiority in empathy and ToM and a likelihood of young girls to engage in pretend play more frequently and to a higher degree than young boys. Previous research has also found a relationship between play and social cognition, as through the act of imagination, one is able to thoroughly take on the perspectives of someone other than the self. This study attempts to show a shift in these mental capabilities after an extensive engagement in pretend play (more than seen in a typical preschool classroom). Boys are expected to reach equal levels of ToM and empathy of their female peers after the intervention. This study attempts to hopefully find an intervention to instill higher levels of empathy in developing children and to support the need for more creative free play in the classroom.

Esta investigação traz como objeto de estudo o brincar de crianças com transtornos do desenvolvimento, mais especificamente os quadros de autismo. A intenção é verificar como evoluem as relações com o lúdico e como acontecem ações de natureza simbólica, considerando as experiências desenvolvidas na educação infantil. É possível que crianças com um quadro de transtornos do desenvolvimento sejam capazes de engajar-se no jogo simbólico? Essas crianças seguem a trajetória de envolvimento com as atividades lúdicas ou perdem-se em brincadeiras misteriosas, estagnando sua relação com o brincar? Apenas reproduzem atos ensinados sem significação e reconstrução individual ou são também capazes de avançar e interagir com as outras crianças? O presente estudo tem seu início com uma pesquisa bibliográfica com foco na educação inclusiva, discutindo a concepção de criança, a perspectiva de desenvolvimento da psicologia Histórico-cultural e o conceito de jogo. Parte-se da compreensão do significado da atividade lúdica para a criança, tomando-se como referência a evolução proposta por Elkonin, em Psicologia do Jogo, na qual este conceito se define tanto como ato de significação social e cultural quanto como atividade principal ou atividade-guia da criança. Como procedimento metodológico, adotou-se o estudo de caso de inspiração etnográfica, sendo a unidade de análise uma escola municipal de educação infantil. A descrição dos dados visa interpretações sobre fatores complexos que permeiam e influem no processo de engajamento no jogo simbólico, para compreender a relação que a criança estabelece com o lúdico conforme a oferta presente no contexto do qual participa. Se o brincar é cultural, a princípio considera-se que não seria possível, para nenhuma criança, assumir um jogo sobre o qual não possui e/ou não articula diferentes referências. Porém, se essa criança brinca, de que modo se pode conceber esse brincar, ao lançar um olhar para como ela lida com suas referências? / This research has as object of study the act of playing of children with developmental disorders, specifically the ones which fit into the autism spectrum. The intention is to verify how the relation with the ludic progresses and how symbolic acts happen, considering experiences developed during elementary school. Is it possible, within the Brazilian context and reality, that children with a diagnosis of developmental disorder are able to engage in a pretend play? Do these children follow an involvement pattern with ludic activities or do they lose themselves in mysterious games, thus stagnating their relation with the act of playing? Do they only reproduce meaningless acts and individual reconstruction they were taught or are they also capable of moving along and interacting with other children? The present study starts with a bibliographical research focused on inclusive education, discussing the conceptualization of children, the development of a Historical-cultural psychology approach and the concept of play. Starting off by understanding the meaning of ludic activity for the child, using as reference the evolution purposed by Elkonin in The Psycology of Play, in which the concept is defined as much as an act of social and cultural signification as well as the main or Leading Activity for the child. As methodological procedure, a case study of ethnographic inspiration was adopted, being the study focus a district elementary school. The data description aims at interpretations of complex facts which pervade and influence the process of engagement in the symbolic play, also to understand the relation which the child develops with the ludic according to the present context in which he or she is part of. If the act of playing is cultural, it is believed that it would not be possible, for any child, to engage in a game in which he or she does not possess and/or does not articulate different references.

La tesi è articolata in due studi entrambi condotti nel settore di studi della teoria della mente. I due ambiti indagati sono l'abilità di finzione e la comprensione morale, in condizioni evolutive tipiche e atipiche. Il primo ambito indagato è il gioco di finzione nello sviluppo tipico, in particolare in riferimento all'interazione con la madre. I dati ottenuti dallo studio condotto, in cui si sono analizzate le espressioni verbali materne, supportano l'ipotesi dell'esistenza di una tendenza delle madri ad utilizzare un linguaggio mentalistico in modo appropriato durante l'interazione di finzione con i loro bambini. Il secondo ambito di indagine è la comprensione morale, nello specifico la valutazione delle intenzioni che sottendono azioni di valenza morale in soggetti autistici. Lo studio condotto analizza la capacità di mentalizzazione e di comprensione morale e i loro eventuali legami, nell'autismo ad alto funzionamento e nello sviluppo tipico. I risultati della ricerca mostrano che, in accordo con la letteratura, si riscontrano difficoltà negli autistici nelle prove mentalistiche, ma non nelle prove sulla comprensione morale. / My dissertation consists of two researches concerning theory of mind, in particular pretend play and moral understanding, in typical and atypical development. The first study investigated the maternal mental language used during mother-child interaction in pretend and real contexts. The results suggest that mothers used an appropriated mental language during the mother-child interaction in pretend. The second study analyzed theory of mind and moral understanding in children with autism high-functioning and normal development children. The aim of this research was to explore evaluation of the intention of moral action and its link with mentalization ability. According to literature, results show significant differences between autistic and control groups in theory of mind tasks, but not in moral understanding tasks.