Forty-two children participated in a longitudinal study that investigated the relationship between their joint engagement experience when toddlers and their development of theory of mind when preschoolers. Controlling for language comprehension at 30-months, higher preschool false belief scores were associated with more time in coordinated joint engagement earlier (18–21 mo, β = .34) and in symbol-infused joint engagement later (27–30 mo, β = .35) in toddlerhood. Findings suggest that the early foundation of theory of mind development is laid as toddlers attend to both social-emotional and symbolic aspects of shared events.
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