ABSTRACT
Theory of Mind, (ToM), designates the socio-cognitive ability that develops in human beings during the first years of life, which allows them to attribute mental states to other people through inferences regarding their beliefs, desires and intentions, and thus predict or explain the behavior of others in everyday social relations. In this sense, the objective of this research was to carry out a literature review regarding the emergence and development of ToM in babies. The search was carried out in the Science Direct, Scielo and PsycInfo databases and obtained 399 results, of which 26 articles were analyzed referring to the development of ToM before expressive language. The results suggest that babies’ mental abilities are more sophisticated than previously believed. However, the reason for this success is contradictory and has been conceptualized and interpreted in different ways by researchers.
Keywords:
theory of mind; babies; mental states; pre-verbal