Social Cognition of Children with Specific Language Impairment: Ability of Theory of Mind

Kim, Jung Mee

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2003;8(3): 69-81.

Jung Mee Kim^`

김정미(Jung Mee Kim)

ABSTRACT

Social cognition means cognition and knowledge about people and their doings. The theory of mind is an emerging research area in social cognition. The ability to understand that a person has a belief that does not match reality and that he or she may act in accordance with that belief is an important milestone of cognitive development. To have a mature theory of mind is to understand that human beings possess mental states which are related to the environment in the reality and which can be used to predict and explain human behaviors. Using false-belief task, this study examined a theory of mind for children with specific language impairment. The results showed that children with specific language impairment were poorer in the ability of theory of mind compared with chronological-age matched children as well as with language-ability matched children. Relationships between social cognition and language development were discussed.