Investigating of the theory of mind skills of normally developed 7-12 aged children with siblings with or without disability

The aim of this study is to investigate theory of mind skills of normally developed children between ages 7-12 and who have and who do not have retarded sibling. Within the study, 83 normally developed children( 43 girls, 40 boys) who have retarded siblings going on their education in several schools in İzmir and 86 normally developed children( 43 girls, 43 boys) who do not have retarded siblings have been included. In order to measure theory of mind skills Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test(RMET) Child Form was used. Levels of receptive language of participants was determined by Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Personal information form developed by researcher was used to gather socio-demographic information. In order to provide normal distribution assumption, independent samples t test was used for theory of mind skills of children who have and who do not have siblings. Two way ANOVA was used for cumulative effect of parent income, mother education level, father education level, sibling status and sex, father-mother togetherness. SPSS 18.00 programme was used to analyze data. Results of this sutdy are: Difference between theory of mind skills of normally developed children who have and who do not have retarded sibling is significant. When it is evaluated for sub problems, girl participants have higher scores in children who have and who do not have retarded sibling. Children who have seperate parents have also founded to have higher scores than children whose parents are together. When mother education level, father education level, parent income increase, skills of theory of mind also increases. However, when cumulative effect of sex, mother education level, father education level, sibling status is taken into account, difference is not statistically significant. Findings are discussed with other findings in literature, several suggestions are made.