The Relationship between Perspective Taking Skills and Language Development in Preschool Children

Abstract

Perspective taking is a fundamental skill that helps us to understand others' thoughts, feelings and perceptions. Past studies have shown that there were significant relations between young children's perspective taking abilities and age, gender, formal schooling and socioeconomic status. The present study was conducted to investigate the relationship between perspective taking skills and language development in preschool children. The study sample included 98 three to five-year-old children (53 girls and 45 boys) attending six kindergartens located at the city center of Adana, Turkey. Children came from families with similar demographic characteristics. As data collection instruments, Perspective Taking Test for Children (PTC) and Peabody Picture-Vocabulary Test were used. Data were obtained by individual interviews. Firstly, children were presented the PTC. The next day, Peabody Picture-Vocabulary Test wasapplied to the children. The results show that there was a significant and positive correlation between perspective taking skills and language development of the children. These correlations were high value for the age of three years, moderate for four years old and high for five years old. It was also determined that language development of children predicted their perspective taking skills significantly. Keywords: children's social skills, empathy, language development, perspective taking, theory of mind Note: This article is produced from Master's thesis of Meltem Emen.