Apractical Study On The Effect Of Teachers' Language On The Development Of Theory Of Mind Among 3-4-year-old Children

Theory of mind refers to the individual's ability to recognize and understand various psychological states of himself and others,which is an important part of the field of human social cognitive development.Many studies have shown that there is a close relationship between theory of mind and language,in which metalanguage is one of the important factors affecting children's theory of mind level,young Children's theory of mind can be developed in the long-term social dialogue about talking about others or their own psychological state.Children at the age of four,their various aspects ability are gradually formed,especially young children's psychological theory mainly concentrated in this period of time,so this time is a key period in the development of young children.The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of teachers' state-of-mind language on the development of theory of mind of 3-4-year-old children.According to the aim of this study,two 3-to 4-year-old children in the class of J kindergarten in Hangzhou were selected as the experimental class and the control class.Through the regular collective curriculum,the random education activities in daily life and the game activities designed by teachers from the perspective of theory of mind,the children in the experimental class were intensively influenced during the three-month period,using the language with mental state to promote the development of children's theory of mind in experimental class.The classic task of theory of mind: Task of accidental location and task of accidental content were used to test children's theory of mind before and after the experiment.Quantitative and qualitative research are used to analyze and compare the influence of Teacher's language on children's theory of mind before and after the experiment.In the scope of this study,the results are as follows:(1)After the teacher has the language influence of psychological state,the pre-test and post-test results of theory of mind of the experimental class children are significantly different,there is a significant difference in the level of theory of mind between the experimental class and the control class.Teachers can promote the development of theory of mind by using lots of language with mental state;(2)There is no significant difference in the pre-test and post-test of preschoolers' theory of mind in the control class.In daily life,group teaching,random talk,pretend play and other practical activities designed from the perspective oftheory of mind are helpful to improve children's theory of mind;(3)Long-term dialogue between teachers and children is helpful for children to understand the psychological state of others,and children to express more psychological feelings.In addition,this study selected a very representative case analysis to elaborate the relationship between teachers' psychological state language and 3-4-year-old children's theory of mind development,that is,to analyze the children's theory-of-mind level from their daily understanding and cognition of the psychological state of self or others.Finally,based on the above research results and case analysis,the following suggestions are put forward:(1)Teachers should use psychological language to communicate with children,such as "I feel";(2)In practice,we advocate the design of group teaching,random conversation and other practical activities from the perspective of theory of mind,to promote the development of children's theory of mind;(3)Teachers should be good at using beliefs,intentions,wishes and other aspects of the state of mind terminology to guide children,to explore the value of teachers' language theory of mind content.