Conversational understanding and the theory of mind: a comparative study of children with and without cleft palate

• Grant number: 17/05004-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2017
• End date: August 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Human Development Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Maria de Lourdes Merighi Tabaquim
• Grantee: Caroline Zucari Paes
• Host Institution: Hospital de Reabilitação de Anomalias Craniofaciais (HRAC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The theory of mind, the understanding that children elaborate on intentions, desires and beliefs, allows to predict behavior and formulate understanding of the social world and learning. The understanding of cognitive social aspects seems to be closely linked to the trajectory of social development and school adjustment. This finding leads to inquire about how the theory of mind would be given to children who shows difficulties in language. The present research aims to investigate the relationship between aspects of conversational comprehension, involved in pragmatics language, and mind theory in children's education, by comparing children the have and haven't cleft lip and palate. 20 children of both genders, aged 3 to 5 years, pre-school students from municipal schools composed two groups, G1 (15) with cleft lip and palate (G2) (15 without cleft lip and palate. Children in both groups will be assessed for performance in conversational comprehension and mind theory tasks. The data will be analyzed descriptively and submitted to the statistical study, with significance level d0.05 for differences to be considered. (AU)