Predicting school achievement from early theory of mind: Differential effects on achievement tests and teacher ratings

This study investigates long term consequences of early theory-of-mind abilities on different measures of school achievement. A group of 86 children (50% girls) completed theory-of-mind tasks and standardized tests on working memory, language, and nonverbal abilities at the age of 4 years. In Grade 1 and Grade 2, they were presented with a test on reading and two tests on mathematical competencies (arithmetic skills and numeracy). Moreover, teachers rated children's competencies with regard to literacy, mathematics, attention, and social-emotional aspects. The results showed that with the exception of numeracy there were no or only weak predictive relations between theory-of-mind understanding in preschool and performance on achievement tests in school after controlling for socioeconomic status, gender, nonverbal abilities, working memory, and language abilities. However, in first grade, theory of mind turned out to be a significant predictor of teachers' ratings of children's reading and mathematical competencies even if the other child variables were controlled for.