Young children whose mothers talk with them more frequently and inmore detail about people's thoughts and feelings tend to be betterat taking another's perspective than other children of the sameage. That's what researchers from the University of Western Australiafound in a new longitudinal study published in the journal ChildDevelopment. "Parents who frequently put themselves in someone else's shoes inconversations with their children make it more likely that theirchildren will be able to do the same," according to Brad Farrant,postdoctoral fellow at the Telethon Institute for Child HealthResearch at the University of Western Australia, the study's leadauthor. To learn more about how we develop the ability to take another'sperspective, researchers looked at the influence of the way parentsinteract with and talk to their children. The two-year studyinvolved more than 120 Australian children between the ages of 4and 6 at the start of the study, both youngsters with typicallydeveloping language and those who were delayed in their acquisitionof language. The participants were part of a larger ongoinglongitudinal research project. The children completed tasks designed to assess their languageskills, their ability to infer others' beliefs and use these topredict others' behavior, and their ability to flexibly shiftbetween different perspectives. Mothers also reported on the typesof language they used with their children. Among children with typically developing language, the researchersfound that moms who talked more often and in greater detail aboutpeople's thoughts and feelings - commenting on how another personmight react to a particular situation as well as their own feelingsabout the topic at hand - had children with better language skillsand better perspective-taking skills. This suggests that mothers'use of this type of language influences their children's languageability and cognitive flexibility, which in turn appears toinfluence their development of theory of mind, a key component inlearning to take another's perspective. Children with delayed language acquisition were delayed in theirdevelopment of perspective-taking skills - though this wasn'tnecessarily due to moms' use of language. This highlights the roleplayed by language as children develop the ability to takeanother's perspective. "Solving the many challenges that the world faces today requires usall to get better at taking the perspective of other people,"according to Farrant. The study was supported by a University of Western AustraliaHackett scholarship and a University of Western Australiacompletion scholarship. Additional References Citations. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as 3D Decorative Wall Panel , Art Deco Glass Vase, and more. For more , please visit Decorative Glass Pieces today!
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