Social cognition and theory of mind for normal development preschools children

Social cognition and social information are the most notable of human creativities. Social cognition is unlike many regular aspects of teaching subjects, as it requires more natural social interaction to be learned. On the other hand, the Theory of Mind (ToM) has demonstrated that a child’s ability to understand people's mental states develops around the age of five or six, the time when children begin to go to preschool. To the author’s knowledge, no study in Saudi Arabia has examined ToM among preschool students. Children (n=64) with normal developmental progression at preschools were requested to be evaluated by their parents. Social cognition was evaluated by parents using the Empathy Questionnaire. The ToM test serves as a framework for understanding and then training ToM. The Arabic adaptation version of ToM was used. A group of thirty three (33) children participated in the ToM treatment program and (31)children in a no-treatment control group. Within twelve weeks of ToM interventions, a meaningful improvement was reported in the ToM group’s performance on some false belief tasks and no improvement was noted in the control group. The improvement of the social cognition was mainly demonstrated on a parents’ Empathy Questionnaire for the ToM treatment program. Conclusion: This preliminary study suggests that it is possible to improve ToM skills and empathy skills through training among normal development preschool children. Regardless of specific school programs like peer tutoring or collaborative learning, ToM improvement has implications for preschool children’s skills to think critically and to build their self-concept. Therefore, it is recommended that teachers are provided with an easy curriculum for teaching children ToM skills.