Theory of Mind — HearSayLW Blog — Lynn A. Wood Rehab Audiologist | Auditory Verbal Therapist

This blog post shares an article regarding THEORY OF MIND written by Donna Sperandio, Head of Rehabilitation at MED-EL

You can read the original article HERE

5 Strategies to Develop Theory of Mind Skills for Your Child: Part 1

By Donna Sperandio
Posted April 17, 2015
In Tips & Tricks

Last week we talked a bit about the Theory of Mind—why it’s so important for children with hearing loss to build their social skills, make friends, and ultimately have lots of access to rich and meaningful language and speech early in their life. See repost HERE.

Now, here are 5 strategies that you can use to help your child develop their Theory of Mind skills in day-to-day life. And next week we’ll share more 5 activities that you can do with your child to help them.

“Mental State Verbs” in the Theory of Mind

This isn’t one of the tips, but just a quick definition of the term “mental state verbs” that we’ll use throughout this post. Mental state verbs are words about thoughts that you have: think, believe, like, love, hate, imagine, hope, remember, know, guess, feel, wish, forget, recognise, learn, perceive, decide, understand, miss, appreciate, and surprise are all mental state verbs.

These mental states are not always something that we can observe or see others doing. For example, you can’t necessarily observe someone imagining, guessing or forgetting. Because of this they can be more difficult to learn and understand—unless we have lots of practice using them and hearing other people use them in a variety of contexts.

Throughout this blog article we’ll bold specific mental state words to make them easy to see.

1. Use Mental State Verbs in Your Everyday Routines

Talk with your child about your own thoughts, beliefs and feelings as you go about your day. This will give your child more opportunities to hear your thoughts, and therefore better understand what the different mental state concepts mean. For example, you might say out loud so that your child can hear:

“I forgot to take my lunch yesterday. I left it in the fridge at home, and at lunch time, I felt so hungry. I have to remember to take it tomorrow.”
“We could get a treat at the shops. I think Andrew might like a treat. We could get him a lollipop, or wecould get him some jelly beans. What do you think he might like?”
“I felt so happy when you got an award at school today. I didn’t know that was happening, it was such asurprise!”
“I don’t know where Sarah put the keys. I’m guessing they might be on the table. Or she could have left them in her bag.”
“I saw Uncle Chris at the shops today. I was surprised to see him, as I thought he was still on holidays.”

2. Link Concrete Objects with Mental State Verbs

Go beyond just talking about things and objects, and draw direct connections between the objects and mental state verbs. Here are some ways:

Bring together a few different objects—toys, books, clothes, anything—and pick one that you like and explain to your child why you like
Encourage your child to then choose one that they like and give reasons why they like Then have themguess which one their sibling or other parent might like, and follow by asking the sibling or other parent which one they like. Are the answers the same?
Make a surprise for their sibling or other parent before they come home, like making a card or cupcakes. Talk with your child about how the sibling or parent doesn’t know that there’s a surprise waiting, and then when the sibling or parent comes home ask them if they knew about the surprise. When they say “no”, this will highlight to your child that we can know or believe something that another person might not.

3. Talk About Past Experiences

Talk with your child about what happened earlier in the day, week, month, or year, while incorporating mental state verbs. Highlight perspectives, thoughts, and motives of other people who were involved with these experiences:

“We wanted to do something special for James for his birthday. We knew he liked going to the zoo. Weremembered the last time we went to the zoo together; James told us that he felt so happy to see the crocodiles. He told us that he thinks they are the coolest animal there!”

4. Talk About Upcoming Events

Tell your child about events that will happen in the future, giving reasons as to why you participate in the events in the way you do. Asking your child questions that relate to mental states can help them to understand these concepts through direct interaction and engagement in conversation. Here are some example answers of what you can say to your child:

“I would like to visit grandma today. She likes it when we visit in the afternoon. I think we should take her a cake. What type of cake do you think grandma might like? We could take her an apple cake. Or we couldtake her a carrot cake. Do you remember what type of cake grandma likes best?”
“Grandpa likes going for a swim at sunrise every morning. He believes that he gets the most out of his day when he starts it with a swim.”

Make-believe stories can help your child to put their thoughts into a character, and develop thoughts that reflect the likes, dislikes, emotions and beliefs of the character. If these likes and dislikes reflect the likes anddislikes of your child, you could highlight this to your child by saying “Oh, that’s just like you! I know that youlike riding your bike in the afternoon with your brother, and this person in the story likes to do that too! You both like the same activity!”

5. Name the Mental States as They Happen

Make sure your child notices other people’s mental states by drawing specific attention to them. When someone is thinking, highlight that they’re thinking and that we don’t necessarily know their thoughts. When someone is happy, highlight that they’re feeling happy:

“What do you think John is thinking? Should we ask him – what do you think, John?”
“What do you think Sam might like to eat? Why don’t you ask him, Sam, what would you like to eat?”
“We’ll have to guess what colour Amy might like.”

When you do this, highlight that you and your child don’t always know what John is thinking, or what Sam or Amy would like, but you can find out by asking them. Sometimes, their thoughts and feelings will be different from your own.

What Does the Theory of Mind Have to do with Listening Development?

Theory of Mind. It’s all about the mind—how someone thinks and responds to other people’s thoughts. Everybody’s mind develops naturally through their childhood, and if your child has a hearing loss there are some special considerations to help them develop their best.

It’s The Basis of All Social Interaction

The Theory of Mind is the idea that each child develops an understanding of their own thoughts, desires, and beliefs—and can recognize that other people have their own thoughts, desires, and beliefs. Ever hear the phrase “to put yourself in their shoes”? That’s the Theory of Mind in action.

Basically, it’s everything to do with thinking about thinking.

There are lots of different skills that a person develops through their Theory of Mind. These skills are really helpful:

At the most basic level, they help us to see other people’s points of view, motives, wants, thoughts, and beliefs—and express our own. Ideas like “I like apples”, “I don’t like carrots”, ”I hope I get a doll for my birthday”, “I think he went outside”, and “I thought I left my keys on the table, so I came back to check” are all examples of these thoughts.
They help children develop both socially and emotionally. Having an understanding of their mind and others’ minds plays a significant role in building peer relationships and succeeding in school.
They help everybody to communicate effectively with skills like empathy, persuasion, inference, reasoning, thinking critically, cooperation, and understanding narratives and texts.
They make conversations easier by allowing someone to predict what the listener already knows, what they might need to know, how they’re reacting, and what should be said next.

Developing the Theory of Mind’s Skills

These skills can be seen just about everywhere from daily life to social interaction. Because of this they’re often not directly taught. Instead, they’re learned incidentally and develop early in childhood: naturally and often in tandem with language development.

The words we learn are used to express our thoughts and beliefs, and these thoughts and beliefs are understood through the Theory of Mind’s skills. For example, verbs about different thoughts, like ‘think’, ‘believe’, ‘remember’, ‘know’, ‘wish’, ‘like’, ‘imagine’, ‘guess’, ‘understand’ are abstract concepts—they aren’t something that we can always observe or see. Because of this they often aren’t directly taught, and instead are learned by overhearing others use them over and over in different contexts and conversations.

For Your Child With a Hearing Loss

This is why it’s so important your child is given lots of access to language and speech early in their life. Exposure to rich and meaningful language, and a wide range of opportunities to hear this language across varying contexts, is the best way for someone to develop their own understanding and use of this language. And again, it’s access to this language, and opportunities to practice using it, that helps build these important Theory of Mind skills.

If a child has less exposure to situations where Theory of Mind concepts are used, then their development of these skills might be impacted. And for your child with hearing loss, exposure alone might not be enough. If they are in a situation where people are talking about Theory of Mind concepts—like empathy, inference, and critical thinking—but your child can’t understand the conversation, then they might not get the most out of the situation.

What can you do to make sure your child gets the most out of each situation? Here are some ways to get the most out of the everyday interactions that help to shape theory of mind skills:

Make sure your child has optimal access to sounds at conversational volume during all waking hours.
Reduce background noise by turning off unused sound sources like TVs or radios, allowing your child to better hear spoken conversations around them.
Ensure your child is close to the person he or she is listening to.
Allow and encourage your child to have opportunities to observe and overhear conversations that don’t directly involve them: for example, conversations that siblings might be having at home when playing and negotiating during a game; conversations that members of the community might have, like talking about where they would like to go on holidays, or what they would like to buy; or friends telling stories and jokes to each other.
Narrate your own thoughts and feelings, incorporating mental or thinking verbs such as ‘think’, ‘know’, ‘like’, ‘remember’, ‘believe’, ‘wish’, ‘forget’, ‘guess’. Talk about people’s interactions to your child, and predict what they might be saying, thinking or feeling—and why they might have these thoughts and feelings. Highlight to your child that our feelings and thoughts can differ from another person’s.
Make sure your child has a range of opportunities to hear and use these concepts in their own interactions and play, because your child will better understand the meaning of these concepts through repeated and rich exposure and practice.