The Impact of Sign Language on the Cognitive Development of Deaf Children: The Case of Theories of Mind

Cyril Courtin

224 citations0/0 files storedThe Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education

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Hearing Impairment and Communication Language Development and Disorders Child and Animal Learning Development

Abstract

The ability to attribute false beliefs (i.e., demonstrate theory of mind) by 155 deaf children between 5 and 8 years of age was compared to that of 39 hearing children ages 4 to 6. The hypotheses under investigation were (1) that linguistic features of sign language could promote the development of theories of mind and (2) that early exposure to language would allow an easier access to these theories. Deaf children were grouped according to their communication mode and the hearing status of their parents. The results obtained in three false belief tasks supported the hypotheses: effective representational abilities were demonstrated by deaf children of deaf parents, whereas those born to hearing parents appeared delayed in that regard, with differences according to their communication mode.

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References

1983Beliefs about beliefs: Representation and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children's understanding of deception 1993Understanding the Representational Mind 1989Developing theories of mind 1988Children's Understanding of Representational Change and Its Relation to the Understanding of False Belief and the Appearance-Reality Distinction 1987What the Hands Reveal about the Brain 1986Ignorance versus False Belief: A Developmental Lag in Attribution of Epistemic States 1994Theory of Mind Is Contagious: You Catch It from Your Sibs 1987Conversations about feeling states between mothers and their young children.

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