It takes 0000 ability to understand other people's points of view.

Today I would like to talk about Theory of Mind (ToM).

What is theory of mind? It is a psychological concept that recognizes that other people have thoughts, feelings, and perspectives that are different from our own.

 

<What is the benefit of a well-developed theory of mind?>

Social interaction skills develop.

You can understand other people's emotions, understand jokes, and understand the concept of deception. Rather than simply knowing that other people think differently, you become able to anticipate those thoughts and respond appropriately.

Let me use my favorite children's book story as an example.

The Sandwich Swap is about two friends with completely different tastes who, while looking at each other's sandwiches, initially say bad things like "Gross" and "Yucky."

However, they gradually become good friends who understand each other's differences, recognize that the other person's likes may be different from mine, and show respect for each other's likes.

The 'Perspective Taking Skill', which allows you to recognize other people's perspectives or likes, is developed when your theory of mind develops.

 

How does ABA teach perspective taking skills?

Teaching perspective taking skills can greatly improve the social interaction and emotional understanding of individuals with learning and behavioral problems.

And teaching children to understand and interpret emotions is critical to this process.

<What method of teaching is effective?>

Role Play : Through role play, we practice scenarios of various roles and teach step-by-step how to talk about and react to the emotions of different people. It is important to try out different roles in the same situation and show how the same situation can be perceived differently.

EBS KIDS: https://youtube.com/@ebskids?si=Jw86JMJn9tsnWNvE

Video modeling : It's a good idea to watch videos that show various social situations. For example, EBS Kids has many videos of various peer situations that children can watch. Help them observe, understand, and imitate other people's actions and thought processes.

Social Stories : Create short, personalized stories or comic strips that explain social cues, appropriate behavior, and what others are thinking and feeling in certain situations. It has the advantage of being customizable, and these visual tools are structured and easy to understand.

 

What are some activities you can do at home?

1) Reading facial expressions:

• To learn how to recognize various emotions, it is a good idea to first do the activity of interpreting emotional pictures. There is a quiz called Test Your Emotional Intelligence provided by UC Berkeley's Greater Good Magazine.
• It explains which parts to focus on in order to interpret emotions very specifically. For friends who have difficulty reading facial expressions in this way, it is helpful to tell them what part of the facial expression they should look at to interpret the emotion.

2) Use of children's literature :

• Give us the opportunity to talk from various perspectives through books! Helps you explore. As you read, use questions like the following to describe the characters' facial expressions and emotions:
• “I see (describe nonverbal cue). I think this makes the character feel (name emotion). Let me mimic that facial expression.”
• “I think (character) feels (name emotion) because (describe nonverbal clues).”
• “How do you think the character will feel? How will we know?”

If you want to see more book recommendations: https://www.instagram.com/everbloompath/

3) Play board games:

• For older children who are good at understanding emotions or reading, board games where they have to guess the other person's thoughts are also great.
• Guess Who? is a game where you ask questions to guess the character the other person is thinking of. It is a game that requires you to continuously read the other person's thoughts. It would be a good idea to try the guessing game tailored to your child.

 

It is really difficult to understand other people's feelings or thoughts. It's difficult even for adults. Therefore, it is important to consider the child's strengths and learning style and consider what intervention method to choose to help the child's social life.

If you develop your perspective taking ability, you will acquire various social skills such as empathy, consideration, and behavior for others. I hope you can help children form deeper relationships and have richer social experiences by understanding and teaching this developmental process :)

 

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