Acquisition of mental state language in Mandarin- and Cantonese-speaking children

Children's theory of mind appears to develop from a focus on desire to a fo cus on belief. However, it is nor clear (a) whether this pattern is univers al and (b) whether it could also be explained by linguistic and sociocultur al factors. This study examined mental state language in 10 Mandarin-speaki ng (21-27 months) and 8 Cantonese-speaking (18-44 months) toddlers. The res ults suggest a pattern of theory-of-mind development similar to that in Eng lish, with early use of desire terms followed by other mental state referen ces. However, the Chinese-speaking children used desire terms much earlier, and the use of terms for thinking was very infrequent, even for Mandarin-s peaking adults. This finding suggests a consistency in the overall sequence , but variation in the timing of beginning and end points, in children's th eory-of-mind development across cultures.