Joy, J. (2016, January 6). Review of Contemporary perspectives on research in theory of mind in early childhood education by 
O. N. Sarancho (Ed.). Education Review, 23. 

January 6, 2016 ISSN 1094-5296 

 

 
Sarancho, O. N. (Ed.). (2014). Contemporary perspectives on research in theory of mind in early childhood 

education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age. 

 

Pp. 429                                                                                 ISBN: 9781623965112 
                

Reviewed by Jennifer Joy 
University of Denver 
United States 
 

I selected Contemporary Perspectives on Research 
in Theory of Mind in Early Childhood Education to 
review because I worked as a School Psychologist 
for several years and my role involved consulting 
with teachers, evaluating students, and developing 
and implementing interventions in preschool 
classrooms. Now, I teach courses related to human 
development to undergraduates and I draw on my 
experiences as a school psychologist. Thus, I was 
interested in reviewing the research on the 
educational connections to, and implications of, 
theory of mind development specific to early 
childhood populations to enhance student learning.   

Theory of mind is a complex construct 
numerous definitions with variations in scope and  
content. Some examples from this text include: 
 

Theory of mind (ToM) comprises 
one’s understanding that mental states 
such as desires, beliefs, knowledge, 
intentions, and emotions underlie 
actions (p. 45). 
 
According to Wimmer and Perner 
(1983), the great skill that children 



Review of Contemporary Perspectives on Research in Theory of Mind by Jennifer Joy 
 

 

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acquire in theory of mind is the 
representation of another person’s 
wrong belief in relation to their own 
knowledge of what is true in the world 
(p. 122). 

 A theory of mind is the ability to 
attribute internal or mental states such 
as desires, emotions, and cognitive 
states (e.g., ‘think” “believe”) to 
oneself and others (Premack & 
Woodruff, 1978, p. 291).  

The central focus of theory of mind 
research is on the individual’s 
understanding of intentional behavior 
and use of that understanding in 
explaining his/her own and others’ 
actions (p. 343). 

Theory of mind is the ability to 
consider the contents of one’s own 
and others’ minds (Baron-Cohen, 
2000, p.409). 

As it relates to various dimensions of mental 
states--feeling, thinking and behaving—theory 
of mind has implications for assessment, 
education, and various social and cultural 
perspectives and interactions. Taking on this 
complicated task of defining and identifying 
this multi-faceted concept, the purpose of 
Contemporary Perspectives on Research in Theory of 
Mind in Early Childhood Education is “to share a 
collection of research strands on theory of 
mind research” (p.4). The book is broken 
down into seven sections (called parts), with 
Part I serving as an introduction and Part II 
containing three chapters focused on 
foundational elements of theory of mind. The 
first chapter is a discussion of several terms 
related to the topic. The second chapter 
provides an overview of research on theory of 
mind (ToM) related to infants and proposes 
that the conclusions of each study may 
demonstrate that infants are skilled predictors 
of actions, rather than having innate 
understanding of mental states. In addition, 
the second chapter also examines social 

factors influential in the development of 
ToM. The final chapter of Part II highlights 
children’s understanding of their learning 
process and persuasion.  

Part III includes four chapters related 
to assessment. The first chapter provides a 
variety of direct and indirect methods of 
assessing aspects of ToM. Through the 
discussion of the research on various 
assessments, it is brought to light that ToM is 
not a singular construct, but rather a “series of 
skills that are acquired gradually and that 
develop and improve throughout a child’s 
school life” (p. 95). In the second chapter, the 
authors explain three specific areas of ToM, 
including false-belief understanding, the role 
of language, and perspective-taking. The third 
chapter expands on elicited-response versus 
spontaneous-response in false-belief tasks and 
includes some research on primates, as well as 
some information learned from neuroimaging. 
The final chapter of Part III explores research 
on our understanding of signs, photographs 
and false-beliefs. 

Part IV includes two chapters related 
to mental processes. In the first chapter, the 
authors explain neurocognitive research on 
ToM in adults and behavioral research related 
to infancy through age 7 proposing neural 
correlates to complex cognitive processes and 
ToM. The second chapter describes the role 
of introspective abilities in the development 
of ToM. The authors explain the 
developmental changes children demonstrate 
in relation to their ability to describe their 
own thought processes and the strategies they 
are using when solving problems.  

Part V includes four chapters related 
to emotions, relationships, and education. The 
authors of the first chapter account 
developmental changes in ToM between the 
ages of 3 and 10 related to emotional 
understanding, emotional regulation, 
relationships and social competence as 
predictors of success in school. The second 
chapter in this section presents how children 
understand the learning and teaching process 
and the research related to learning and 



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teaching differences in children with Autism 
Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The third chapter 
delves into maternal influences on the 
development of ToM and the links between 
ToM and academic success. Finally, the fourth 
chapter discusses ToM as it relates to 
teaching, tutoring, and emotions.  

Part VI included three chapters related 
to cultural and social elements. The first 
chapter details how socialization efforts differ 
from one culture to another and how these 
differences influence differences in the 
development of ToM in children. The second 
chapter takes an ecological-systemic view and 
proposes several variables related to family as 
influential on ToM. Variables are broken into 
systemic levels based on Bronfenbrenner’s 
(2005) ecological framework. The final 
chapter in this section describes how our 
assumptions may be inaccurate if we evaluate 
Japanese children in the same way we evaluate 
children in the US, proposing that the unique 
cultural and linguistic framework that dictates 
social understanding in Japanese children 
might be referred to as theory of relation. Part 
VII is a one chapter conclusion entitled, 
“Theory of Mind: inferences and Future 
Research Directions” in which the authors 
make suggestions for future studies in this 
area.  

The title Contemporary Perspectives on 
Research in Theory of Mind in Early Childhood 
Education was a little misleading. The book 
definitely contained a thorough overview of 
research on Theory of Mind (ToM) from a 
variety of different perspectives. I was, 
however, expecting more focus on early 
childhood education, as presented in the title. 
Specifically, the research bounced between 
various developmental stages including 
infants/toddlers, preschoolers, school-aged 
children, adolescents and even adults. With 
my background as a School Psychologist, I 
tend to differentiate between infants and 
toddlers (0-2) and early childhood 
populations; however, I would have embraced 
the inclusion of children 0-8 years in an early 
childhood education book. But the inclusion 

of children beyond eight, adolescents, and 
adults seemed to be out of context. I think the 
inclusion of a much broader age range would 
have been more feasible if there was more 
cohesion across the chapters of the book 
and/or an explanation of the connection 
between groups was explicit. The chapters 
read like a series of well-written, and very 
detailed manuscripts, but not as one unified 
book. Possibly the research could have been 
presented as chapters related to each 
developmental stage with subsections for 
research in the various specializations 
presented (neuroscience, cognition, emotion/ 
interaction, social/cultural, education, etc.), or 
if all similar content was grouped together 
(and referenced back to as needed in the 
subsequent chapters) it would have minimized 
the repetition, and apparent contradictions. 
Finally, an index at the end of the book would 
have been extremely advantageous.  

As a researcher, I would use this book 
as a resource when evaluating the connection 
between the various topics presented and 
ToM. For example, my research relates to 
social competence, and while the connection 
between social competence and ToM was 
included, the information was presented 
across chapters rather than as a cohesive 
whole. Other examples of this are the 
discussion on maternal/parental influences, as 
well as the influence of siblings on ToM 
development (chapters 3, 13, and 16) and 
learning/ teaching related (chapters 4, 10, 11, 
12, 13, and 14). While each of the authors are 
clearly knowledgeable and provided detailed 
research, the collaboration of similar content 
areas across chapters would have minimized 
repetition and increased clarity for the reader. 

Similarly, since the authors of each 
chapter chose to include varied information 
on similar topics, reading the book as a 
cohesive whole presented some apparent 
contradictions. For example, in chapter three, 
the authors discussed literature on ToM in 
infants stating, “below we discuss the 
paradigmatic studies, arguing that the results 
do not provide clear evidence that infants 



Review of Contemporary Perspectives on Research in Theory of Mind by Jennifer Joy 
 

 

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understand mental states and instead, can just 
as easily be interpreted as indicating that 
infants are skilled at predicting actions” (p.46). 
This statement seemed to indicate that this 
would be the stance of the authors 
throughout the text. However, in the 
subsequent chapters there were several 
references to the research related to infants, 
giving varying degrees of credence to the 
inferences made by the authors of study. For 
example, in chapter 6, the authors seem to 
begin in agreement with the statement on 
page 46, but then give credence to the 
research on infant ToM by stating “the shift 
from implicit to explicit lends credibility to 
the study of infants’ understanding of the 
world of the mind” (p.117). Thus, this lacked 
consistency. Overall, research on ToM related 
to infant populations seems to be 
inconclusive, so the researchers should have 
limited the inclusion of this topic. 

Another example of lack of agreement 
was presented in chapters 12 and 13. In 
chapter 12, the authors rely on the premise 
that “teaching, arguably, can only be 
intentional” (p.274) which is in alignment with 
what is presented by the authors of many of 
the other chapters. However, in chapter 13, 
the authors state that teaching is innate but 
then seem to go on to refute their own 
statement. If the two chapters were meant to 
express two opposing sides, the connection is 
not explicitly made by the authors of the latter 
chapter. If they are in agreement, then the 
beginning of the chapter presented as the 
opposite of what the authors are attempting 
to say is quite confusing.    

Furthermore, having a background in 
statistics, I would have liked to know more 
about the research presented (sample sizes, 
procedure, how the data was gathered and 
analyzed, variables of influence potential not 
included in the analysis) than just the results. 
In fact, potential issues with the included 
studies due to methodological constraints 
(small sample size, potential confounding 
factors that could influence the results, etc.) 
are missing throughout the book.  For 

example, in the discussion on pg. 272-273, the 
authors describe a body of evidence that 
demonstrates that there is a developmental 
progression in the learning process that goes 
from learning based on desire (less mature) to 
learning based on intention and attending to 
pertinent information (more mature). Thus, 
attention seems to play a role in the 
differentiation between desire and intention in 
the learning process. However, chapter 13 
highlights a study where the researchers 
surmise infants have an awareness of an adult 
who has knowledge of an action versus an 
adult who does not (Song, Baillargeon, & 
Fisher, 2005); although, when reading this 
actual study, the researchers report that 32% 
of a small sample were eliminated from the 
analysis due to attentional issues. This 
methodological issue with the study is not 
addressed by the authors of the chapter.  

Finally, the various implications for 
education and advice to teachers sections 
could have included specific interventions or 
programs that could be used to enhance ToM, 
or detailed recommendations on how the 
authors suggest implementing the theoretical 
ideas. Most of the suggestions were general 
and theoretical in nature limiting the practical 
application.   

There were also several favorable 
aspects of Contemporary Perspectives on Research in 
Theory of Mind in Early Childhood Education. 
First, as mentioned above, the amount of 
research related to ToM included is quite 
extensive. Thus, for someone with a 
foundational understanding of ToM who 
wants to expand their understanding in the 
area, this would be a great place to start. 
Secondly, the use of person-first language in 
many of the chapters was most impressive.  
According to the Department of Health and 
Human Services website, “People first 
language is used to speak appropriately and 
respectfully about an individual with a 
disability. People first language emphasizes 
the person first not the disability”. . I teach 
this concept to my college students because 
I’ve worked with students with disabilities for 



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many years and understand the need for 
greater sensitivity in this area. . Thus, I was 
pleased that for most of the book, I saw the 
wording in the form person with disability, 
rather than disability person (e.g., children 
with Autism). It is unfortunate that this 
respectful wording is not used more in texts 
and videos, and I appreciated the efforts of 
this group of authors.   

The explanation of ToM as a 
progression of skills was also a welcome topic 
presented in several chapters. Often ToM is 
minimized to what is measured by false-belief 
tasks. However, this book included ToM as a 
series of abilities developed over time. 
“Wellman and Lui (2004) found that the 
validated ToM task battery revealed a 
progression of conceptual achievements that 
mark social cognitive understanding in 
normally developing preschool children and 
also provided a method for measuring that 
development accurately and informatively” 
(p.98). This showed that children move 
through a progression from the earliest ability, 
Diverse Desires (DD) through a five step 
series to the most advanced ability, Hidden 
Emotion (HE). Many additional examples 
were also included. In chapter 10, the authors 
discussed the developmental progression of 
introspective abilities. Also, chapter 12 
demonstrated the changes in intentionality as 
it relates to teaching in a developmental 
progression.  

Next, the authors included a great deal 
of information related to children with various 
disabilities. There has been a consistent link 
between deficits in ToM development and 
children with Autism. Thus, the inclusion of 
various studies demonstrating this connection 
was certainly warranted. The authors provided 
an abundance of research in this area included 
in chapters 5, 7, 8, and 12. One question 
addressed by the authors is “Does the 
diminished capacity for mental-state 
understanding in children with ASD affect 
these children’s understanding of the 
processes of learning and teaching” (p. 280)?  
The authors also included research related to 

the development of ToM in children with 
various other disabilities.  

Another area of strength was the 
documentation of cultural differences. As 
mentioned above, there is a chapter dedicated 
the differences seen in Japanese children on 
ToM tasks due to cultural influences. Also, 
chapter 5 compares developmental sequences 
of US preschoolers, Chinese preschoolers, 
and deaf children. And in chapter 16, the 
authors present various sociocultural 
influences on ToM including attachment, 
parenting style, language about mental states, 
siblings, parental stress, scaffolding, 
decontexualization, social maturity, quality of 
nonparental care, parental interest in social 
development, academic stimulation, SES, 
educational level of parents, parents’ 
occupational level, family income, materials 
for stimulating learning, quality of physical 
contact, and bilingualism.  

Additionally, the various authors make 
connections between language development 
and ToM. “Other important elements to 
consider in the assessment of ToM are 
language development, which is considered a 
fundamental vehicle in interactions with other 
people…” (p.93). In chapter 6, the authors 
describe children moving from understanding 
literal language to figurative language allowing 
them to then understand metaphors, irony, 
and white lies. Additionally, the authors 
express, “A significant body of work on the 
relation between theory of mind and language 
development has shown that during the 
preschool period, theory of mind 
understanding, as measured by false-belief 
tasks, is dependent upon language 
development” (p.125). This statement is 
followed by a variety of studies confirming 
this connection. 

In conclusion, this book had several 
strong points including the breadth of 
research covering a large number of content 
areas which could be quite useful to educators 
interested in expanding their theory of mind 
knowledge base. Also, researchers interested 
in studying theory of mind could use this 



Review of Contemporary Perspectives on Research in Theory of Mind by Jennifer Joy 
 

 

6 

resource as a review of the research 
completed in this area and gain direction for 
future studies. Some of the other strengths of 
the book were the inclusion of research 
related to children with disabilities, differences 
across cultures, and the connection between 
ToM development and language 
development. The main limitation is the lack 
of connection between the various chapters, 

so without an index it is very tough to find all 
of the information in one specific content 
area. Also, increased methodological 
information on the included studies and 
specific recommendations for implementation 
of ideas in educational settings would have 
made the book more useful on a practical 
level.  

 

References 
 
Baron-Cohen, S. (2000) Theory of mind and  

autism: A fifteen year review. In S. Baron-Cohen, H. Tager-Flusberg, & D.J. Cohen (Eds.), 
Understanding other minds: Perspectives from developmental cognitive neuroscience (pp.3-20). New York, 
NY: Oxford University Press.  

 
Bronfenbrenner, U. (Ed.) (2005). Making human  

beings human. Bioecological perspectives on human development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 
 
Colorado Department of Education. (May, 2015).  

Colorado Preschool Program (CPP) handbook retrieved at 
http://www.cde.state.co.us/cpp/cpphandbook  

 
Department of Health and Human Services website.  

Communicating with and about people with  
disabilities. Retrieved at  
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/pdf/disabilityposter_photos.pdf  

 
Premack, D. & Woodruff, G. (1978). Does the  

chimpanzee have a “theory of mind?” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 4, 515-526.  
 
Song, H., Baillargeon, R., & Fisher, C. (2005). Can  

infants attribute to an agent a disposition to perform a particular action? Cognition, 98, B45-
B55. 

 
Wellman, H.M. & Lui, D. (2004). Scaling the  

theory of mind tasks. Child Development, 74(2), 523-541. 
 
Wimmer, H., & Perner, J. (1983). Beliefs about  

beliefs: Representations and constraining function of wrong beliefs in young children’s 
understanding of deception. Cognition, 13, 103-128. 

 

About the Reviewer 
 
Jennifer Joy 
Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor 

http://www.cde.state.co.us/cpp/cpphandbook
http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/pdf/disabilityposter_photos.pdf


Education Review   

 

 

7 

University of Denver 
 
Jennifer Joy is a Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Denver. She completed 
her doctoral degree in School Psychology with a minor in Statistics and Research Methods, and then 
spent several years in the schools working as a school psychologist before teaching. Her research is 
focused on social competence, school readiness, and early literacy in preschool populations. She 
teaches courses with a developmental and clinical emphasis.  

  



Review of Contemporary Perspectives on Research in Theory of Mind by Jennifer Joy 
 

 

8 

 

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