Shared picture book reading promotes perspective-taking in young children
Whilst parents and teachers tend to value reading to young children for the benefits on language and literacy development, there are other powerful benefits too. For example, a recent study found that children who read are happier, more physically active, and better problem solvers. What effects does shared reading have on young children’s social, emotional, and cognitive abilities that benefit their developmental outcomes in the long term? A likely pathway is through enhancing children’s understanding of other people’s minds, or simply put, perspective-taking.
Perspective-taking promotes positive interpersonal relationships
Perspective-taking is the ability to “stand in other people’s shoes” and see the world from their perspective. This is a critical ability in any interactions involving interpersonal communication, ranging from developing friendships in the playground to conflict resolution in international politics. Studies have shown that children who can better understand other people’s minds and take others’ perspectives are more popular among peers, more prosocial, and more likely to stand up against bullies.
Being able to read minds facilitates metacognitive understanding
Not only does perspective-taking help with children’s social relationships, but being able to read others’ mind is also related to children’s metacognitive understanding in the context of teaching and learning. Imagine a child who does not know how to write the letter O happens to draw a circle that perfectly resembles the letter O. Does the child really learn how to write O? The answer is no, since the learner has not acquired the representational meaning of the circle as letter O in her mind. In another scenario when a child learns how to tie her shoelaces through secretly observing and mimicking her big brother, does the big brother intentionally teach her? Again, the answer is no, since the big brother does not know she is observing. Five-year-old children with advanced mindreading ability could correctly answer these questions by referring to the mental states of the learners or the teachers, while younger children would find these questions challenging. Understanding what learning and teaching mean is a metacognitive developmental milestone in early childhood that prepares children for lifelong learning.
Shared picture book reading provides an opportunity to scaffold children's perspective-taking
Shared picture book reading in early years provides an optimal opportunity for teachers and parents to scaffold children’s perspective-taking which is critical for their social relationships and metacognitive understanding. Children’s stories are riddled with conflicts between different perspectives and contrasts between reality and beliefs. We all know the story of the three little pigs. But the Big Bad Wolf in The True Story of the Three Little Pigs has a totally different perspective regarding what happened when he tells his version of the tale. The visual image in children’s picture books provides yet another tool for meaning-making. Mental state reasoning is challenging for children partially due to its implicit nature. Mental states and changes are invisible. Children have to make inferences based on behavioural cues and keep track of who knows what. Picture books could represent invisible mental states through the creative use of images such as thought bubbles, which decreases the cognitive load needed for keeping track of mental state changes and makes mental state reasoning much easier.
How to read to children
With the goal of promoting perspective-taking, parents and teachers should choose books rich in mental state discourse. In addition to reading the text in the books, do engage children in conversations about the story plots. Ask open-ended questions regarding what the characters know and think; use mental state terms such as believe, think, and guess; highlight and explain contrasting views and perspectives; give corrective feedback to children; and elaborate on children's comments and explanations. For books with an unexpected twist in the plot, do leave room for children to guess what they think will happen next before revealing the ending, contrast that with the surprising twist in the book, and ask children to explain and justify their own thinking and make sense of the plot twist. It is also a good idea to engage children in dramatic plays according to the plot of the story, which gives children the opportunity to truly “stand in others’ shoes”.
Associate Professor Dr. Zhenlin Wang was trained as an early childhood teacher. She subsequently pursued her post-graduate studies in developmental psychology. Her research investigates how children make sense of other people’s mental states and changes, the implication of such in children’s social and cognitive functioning, as well as the cultural, social, and familial influences on children’s mental state understanding. She is also a parent of an 11-year-old avid reader. She started reading picture books to her son when he was an infant. That experience inspired her to conduct intervention studies using picture books in early childhood education settings. Her upcoming publication reports one of such studies. In her spare time, she writes children’s books focusing on mental state understanding in Chinese.