Assessing Theory of Mind in Day-Care Children

• Grant number: 08/10667-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2009
• End date: February 28, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Human Development Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Débora de Hollanda Souza
• Grantee: Thalita Filier Cazetto
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Brazilian day-care centers have now become a social necessity as far as child care is concerned. Since the 1970s, these institutions have proliferated and become the main developmental context for the majority of Brazilian children. To this day, however, there is no record of a Brazilian study investigating the effect of time spent in day-care on the development of an important socio-cognitive skill: theory of mind. There is evidence that, around 4 years of age, children begin to have success in tasks designed to assess this ability, however, its development appears to be influenced by many factors (for example, siblings, number of adults surrounding the child, linguistic development, etc.). The proposed project, therefore, is aimed at studying the effects of time spent in day-care on 48 children, equally divided in three age groups: 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds. Half of them attend day care full time and the other half attend part time. Children's abilities will be assessed in a test of receptive vocabulary and in a scale that involves several components of theory of mind.