On the impact of exposure to different languages on Theory of Mind in neurotypical and autistic children
DOKPE
- Baumeister, Franziska ORCID University of Fribourg
- Wolfer, Pauline ORCID University of Fribourg
- Solaimani, Ehsan ORCID University of York, UK
- Daum, Moritz M. ORCID University of Zurich, Switzerland
- Durrleman, Stephanie ORCID University of Fribourg
- 2025
Published in:
- Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. - Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press (CUP). - 2025, p. 1-16
English
Exposure to multiple languages may support the development of Theory of Mind (ToM) in neurotypical (NT) and autistic children. However, previous research mainly applied group comparisons between monolingual and bilingual children, and the underlying mechanism of the observed difference remains unclear. The present study, therefore, sheds light on the effect of bilingualism on ToM in both NT and autistic children by measuring language experiences with a continuous operationalization. We measure ToM with a behavioral, linguistically simple tabletbased task, allowing inclusive assessment in autistic children. Analyses revealed no difference between monolingual and bilingual NT and autistic children. However, more balanced exposure to different languages within contexts positively predicted first-order false belief understanding in NT children but not autistic children. Mediation analysis showed that the impact in NT children was a direct effect and not mediated via other cognitive skills.
- Faculty
- Faculté des sciences et de médecine
- Department
- Médecine 3ème année
- Language
-
- English
- Classification
- Medicine
- License
- CC BY-NC
- Open access status
- green
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1017/ S136672892510031X
- ISSN 1366-7289
- ISSN 1469-1841
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/unifr/documents/332488
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