LANGUAGE AND THEORY OF MIND: MODELS OF CHANGE

该项目是更大的计划项目的一部分，旨在确定不同课程的有效性， 在两个地点对两个年龄段（2岁和4岁）的低收入高危儿童的入学准备情况进行干预 （德克萨斯州和佛罗里达）。这个项目的目的是研究在不同的语言中教师所使用的语言 课程设置，以验证实践是不同的课程，并连接 孩子们的语言成绩的差异。考虑到孩子们自己语言的多样性 背景，学校和家庭语言之间的差异将作为一个主持人进行测试， 对增长的预期影响。预计这两项课程干预措施将对以下方面产生重大影响： 儿童的语言发展跨越词汇、句法、语义和语用，包括叙事。 新的测试旨在考虑儿童的家庭语言背景，无论是非洲 将使用美式英语、标准（或南方）美式英语和双语西班牙语， 深入分析对早期教育有重要意义的语言方面。第二 结果变量将是心理理论指数的增长，这是一项重要的社会认知成就， 学龄前的几年。样本人群的年龄范围、异质性和规模将允许 测试心理理论如何发展成熟的各种理论模型。元表征的测量， 执行功能（特别是工作记忆和抑制控制），早期心理理论 和错误信念推理任务（标准和非标准）将与儿童一起给予 语言任务在纵向设计，和模型的相互关系，将在几个时间进行测试 点这些经验数据将大大有助于理论辩论的前兆 成熟的心理理论最后，语言和心理理论的结果本身将用于 预测儿童群体的后期功能和入学准备。

The project is part of the larger Program project seeking to determine the effectiveness of different curricular interventions on the school readiness of at-risk, low-income children at two ages ( 2 and 4) and at two sites (Texas and Florida). The purpose of this project is to study the language used by the teachers in the different curriculum settings to verify that the practice is distinct in the different curricula, and to connect the differences to the language outcomes of the children. Given the heterogeneity of the children's own language backgrounds, the difference between school and home language will be tested as a moderator of the expected effects on growth. It is expected that both the curricular interventions will have significant effects on the children's language growth across vocabulary, syntax, semantics and pragmatics, including narrative. New tests designed to take into consideration the children's home language background, whether African American English, Standard (or Southern) American English, and bilingual Spanish will be used, that also give in depth analysis of aspects of language of great significance for early schooling. The second outcome variable will be growth in indices of Theory of Mind, an essential social-cognitive achievement of the preschool years. The substantial age range, heterogeneity and size of the sample populations will allow the testing of various theoretical models of how mature Theory of Mind develops. Measures of metarepresentation, executive function (specifically working memory and inhibitory control), early Theory of Mind and False Belief reasoning tasks (standard and non-standard)will be given to the children together with the language tasks in a longitudinal design, and models of their interrelationships will be tested at several time points. These empirical data will contribute significantly to the theoretical debates about the precursors of mature Theory of Mind. Finally, the language and Theory of Mind outcomes will themselves be used to predict later functioning and school readiness in the groups of children.