Yuvalarda yaşayan okul öncesi dönemdeki çocuklarda sosyal yetkinlik, zihin kuramı ve yönetici işlevler

This study examined concurrent relations among social competence, theory of mind (ToM), and executive function (EF) in 107 three-to-five year-old institution-reared children in Turkey. We used the ToM scale of Wellman and Liu (2004) to measure mental state understanding, and examined the sequencing of ToM acquisition in Turkish children as a secondary aim. The results revealed that an understanding of diverse beliefs developed earlier than knowledge access, favoring the ?individualistic pattern?. The regression and SEM findings showed that EF was a significant predictor of ToM, but none of them were associated with social competence when age was controlled. Receptive language predicted social competence and EF directly, and ToM indirectly through EF, pointing to the importance of this ability for early development.