Theory of mind in emerging reading comprehension: A longitudinal study of early indirect and direct effects

- Longitudinal study of early theory of mind on emerging reading comprehension.
- Evidence of direct effect from early theory of mind on later reading comprehension.
- Evidence of indirect effect, via language, over an extended period of time.
- Theory of mind and metacognition should be included in models of early reading.

The relation between children's theory of mind (ToM) and emerging reading comprehension was investigated in a longitudinal study over 2.5 years. A total of 80 children were tested for ToM, decoding, language skills, and executive function (EF) at Time 1 (mean age = 3; 10 [years; months]). At Time 2 (mean age = 6; 03), children's word reading efficiency, language skills, and reading comprehension were measured. Mediation analysis showed that ToM at Time 1, when children were around 4 years old, indirectly predicted Time 2 reading comprehension, when children were 6 years old, via language ability after controlling for age, nonverbal ability, decoding, EF, and earlier language ability. Importantly, ToM at 4 years also directly predicted reading comprehension 2.5 years later at 6 years. This is the first longitudinal study to show a direct contribution of ToM to reading comprehension in typical development. Findings are discussed in terms of the simple view of reading (SVR); ToM not only supports reading comprehension indirectly by facilitating language but also contributes to it directly over and above the SVR. The potential role of metacognition is considered when accounting for the direct contribution of early ToM to later reading comprehension.