Putting yourself into others' shoes : role-play benefits preschoolers' theory of mind ability.

This study investigated the effects of a role-play intervention program on the Theory of Mind (ToM) understanding in 4- to 6-year old (N = 35) Singaporean preschoolers. Preschoolers who failed one of the ToM tasks were randomly assigned to either training or control condition. In the training condition, children were told stories with false belief situations embedded and asked to act according to their respective characters' mental states. In the control condition, preschoolers engaged in coloring activities. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) was employed to measure verbal ability and the Flexible Item Selection Test. Forward and backward digit span tasks were used to measure executive function. Results have indicated that role-play can improve preschoolers' ToM development and working memory. Additionally, it has shown that PPVT and backward digit span task scores before intervention predicted improvement, suggesting that language and executive function can affect the extent to which preschoolers benefit from the intervention program.Bachelor of Art