Child and mother mental-state talk in shared pretense as predictors of children's social symbolic play abilities at age 3

This study investigated relations between mother and child (N = 49) mental-state talk during shared pretense and children's social symbolic play at age 3. Social symbolic play was not related to mothers’ mental-state talk. In contrast, children's own use of desire-state talk in shared pretense was a better predictor of social symbolic play than their general use of mental-state talk, even after accounting for general verbal ability as well as mothers’ use of desires terms.ConclusionThese results highlight for the first time a link between children's references to desires and their performance on social symbolic play at age 3 years – a social cognitive ability thought to precede theory of mind.

► Children's social symbolic play was unrelated to mothers’ mental-state talk.
► Children's desire-state talk was the strongest predictor of their symbolic play.
► Link between children's references to desires and their social cognition at 3 years.