Theory Of Mind Of Deaf Children: Development And Training

Theory of Mind (TOM) is a hot topic in psychology recently, which is a very important part of social cognition. In our Country, deaf children take up a big proportion of handicapped people. Psychological development and training of deaf children are important in building harmonious society. In this article, we analyzed the development character of deaf children's TOM, and explored factors influencing the development of deaf children's TOM. And with the factual intervenient methods, we explore the education effect on the development of deaf children's TOM.This article included two experiments. Experiment 1, used crossing design, deaf children and normal children aged from 7 to 14 in Kaifeng and Zhengzhou took part in the tasks of unexpected transfer task, deceptive-appearance task and language control task. Experiment 2, used 3×4 mixed design, factors between subjects were 3 training groups respectively trained on unexpected transfer task, appearance-reality distinction task and number conservation task, factors within subject were 4 test tasks as unexpected transfer task, deceptive-appearance task, appearance-reality distinction task and number conservation task. 9 deaf children, who had got zero in pretest, were divided into 3 groups, and trained for a month, then were tested in the 4 tasks. We concluded that:Firstly, children who got higher score in unexpected transfer task can get higher score in deceptive-appearance task, we can put the scores of two tasks together as index for the level of children's TOM.Secondly, with the growth of age, the ratio of deaf children who can get through the tasks of TOM was increased. But there are differences, the ratio was high on standard false belief and low on the implicit false belief. There was no difference in development of deaf children's TOM in sex, and there was a big difference between deaf children and normal children with the same age in development of TOM.Thirdly, education in school had significant influence on the development of deaf children's TOM; there was significant difference between deaf children's with or without hearing aid in understanding of TOM, but the delay of development of TOM still existed; there was no relation between the development of deaf children's TOM and the development of deaf children's intelligence; mother's education and family's economy condition had significant influence on deaf children's TOM, but not"only child or not"and where they came from, city or countryside.Fourthly, TOM of both groups trained in unexpected transfer task and appearance-reality distinction task was improved; the effect of training on unexpected transfer task had been transferred to deceptive-appearance task and appearance-reality distinction task, the effect of training on appearance-reality distinction task hadn't been transferred to unexpected transfer task and deceptive-appearance task.Fifthly, training difference between ages and grades was not found.