News Archive

Brenda Schick set to give lecture on Oct 1

September 24, 2009

When: Thursday, Oct 1
Where: SAC 1011
Time: 4:00pm-5:30pm

An important milestone in the development of cognitive skills in children is the acquisition of a Theory of Mind (ToM), which is the ability to represent and reason about their own and other's beliefs. When children have acquired a ToM, they are able to see events from the perspective of other individuals. This understanding of a ToM is important in cognitive development because it scaffolds literacy skills, socio-pragmatic skills, and other skills essential for academic success.

In research on hearing children, there has been a great deal of theoretical debate about what causes or underlies the acquisition of a ToM. By about age four, children show dramatic changes in their awareness of other people’s minds, often demonstrated by their understanding that other people may have beliefs that are wrong. However, for children who are deaf, and who do not have complete access to communication, this hallmark of development often occurs much later.

This presentation will summarize the results of a recent large scale study with deaf children who have deaf parents and those who have hearing parents. For the deaf children with hearing parents, we have data from children educated in ASL programs and from oral programs. These data show that language is a critical, causal variable in the development of a ToM, as shown by multiple regression analysis. The data provide evidence that the acquisition of a mature ToM is highly dependent on many aspects of language and interaction.

The presentation will also provide preliminary data on the development of potential precursors of Theory of Mind in younger 2 to 3 year old children who are hard of hearing or who have cochlear implants. This presentation will also summarize other research with deaf children related to Theory of Mind and discuss methodological issues in Theory of Mind testing.

There are some profound implications from these findings that deaf children with hearing parents are quite delayed in their acquisition of a mature Theory of Mind. It is clear that when a deaf child has a significant language delay, there is also a delay in the acquisition of fundamental cognitive skills.

View PDF

The is material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number SBE-0541953. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.