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Minds in action: Evidence that linguistic diversity helps children build a theory of mind

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 August 2021

Vanessa Díaz Open the ORCID record for Vanessa Díaz [Opens in a new window]
Vanessa Díaz*
Affiliation:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, United States
*
Address for correspondence: Vanessa Diaz Williams Hall 890 Drillfield Dr. Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA24061United States E-mail [email protected]
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Abstract

Reports suggest that the development of a child's understanding of the mind (ToM) is enhanced in bilingual children. This is usually ascribed to different features of executive functioning (EF), though there is not a lot of empirical support for that position. Instead, published studies suggest an association between linguistic processes such as sociolinguistic sensitivity, metalinguistic awareness, language proficiency, and bilinguals’ ToM development. Coupled with evidence that bilinguals rely more on person-intention cues and show enhanced abilities to repair breakdowns in communication compared to monolinguals, this paper presents the argument that navigating sociolinguistic environments with agents differing in linguistic knowledge helps bilingual children develop an enhanced ToM. Additionally, this review includes relevant literature on deaf children and cultural variations and ToM, which are indicative of other situations in which contextual variants, especially those that are linguistically mediated, have an impact on the development of ToM that is independent of EF.

Keywords

bilingualismtheory of mindfalse-belief reasoningsociolinguistic sensitivityexecutive functioning
Type
Research Article
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 70 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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