Relating pretend play, theory of mind, and language in early childhood

本文以3岁、4岁和5岁儿童为研究对象，探讨了假装游戏与心理理论的关系以及假装游戏与语言发展的关系。结果表明，使用想象物体的假装动作与语言发展有关，但与心智理论的关系不大。但是幻想的个体差异（例如，关于孩子是否有想象中的同伴的信息）与心理表现理论密切相关。这些结果表明，创造虚构人物的倾向与对他人思想的理解有关。

The relation between pretend play and theory of mind and the relation between pretend play and language development were investigated in two studies which were examined to 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children . In results, pretend actions to use imaginary objects were related to language development, but were not related to theory of mind so much. But individual differences in fantasy (e.g., the information about whether children have imaginary companions) were closely related to the theory of mind performance. These results suggest that the tendencies to create imaginary persons are related to the understanding of others' minds.