Our research group explores how children’s ability to understand the mental world of self and others within social relationships affects their learning and social experiences in the classroom.

We investigate how children learn to read and make sense of the people’s thoughts and feelings, and how this ability may influence how they think and feel about themselves while interacting with their friends and teachers in schools. We are especially intrigued with exploring how gender and language play a role in the development of children’s social and emotional understanding.

An important role in social interactions is the ability to understand mental states, thoughts and feelings in others. As adults, we continually explain human behaviours based upon our understanding of the mental world of other people. We assume that people’s actions are caused by their thoughts and feelings. Recently, researchers have been interested in how social and emotional abilities develop throughout childhood and adolescence, and how they influence social behaviour. Our research also explores how Theory of Mind understanding and behaviour may differ for girls and boys across time and cultures.

The goal of our overall program of research is to investigate the development of Theory of Mind in young people. We explore the development and connections between social and emotional understanding and social behaviours within the context of children and adolescents’ play and school life. We believe that by the exploration of such links will further our understanding of the young person’s emotional, cognitive, and social worlds.