Quality Of Social Interaction and Understanding Of Other Minds in Children's Play

Carolyn S.L.Tan-Niam

ctan@psychology.nottingham.ac.uk

Technical Report 39, June 1996


The key question in this investigation is how do differences in understanding of other minds relate to interaction between peers. If children are observed in pretend play, would individual differences in their understanding of other minds be reflected in the quality of their interactive play? A cross-cultural sample of Singaporean and English dyads of pre-school children were formed based on their performance on a false belief task. Each dyad was then videotaped for twenty minutes while engaging in pretend play. A rating scale of quality of social interactive play was developed and inter-rater agreement checked using both UK and Singaporean pre-school teachers. Videotapes of the forty-eight pairs were further coded for visual regard and social play. Results will be discussed in the light of how ToM status is reflected in the social interaction patterns of the children.

 

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