ABSTRACT
The literature highlights the potentiality of stories in favoring conversations about mental states, aspects that contribute to the development of a theory of mind. The aim of this study is to evince the relationship between a theory of mind and mothers' narrative discourse as regards to the use of mental terms in the context of telling stories. Twenty-five middle-class mothers and their four to five old children composed the dyads used as sample. Results showed that the mothers' use of clarifying cognitions in their narratives related significantly with the children's theory of mind. Telling stories seems to be an effective tool to stimulate the conversation about mental states, thereby resulting in the social cognitive development of children.
Keywords:
theory of mind; narrative; mental terms; clarifying cognitions