ABSTRACT
Our picture of what children understand of “other minds” has been transformed in the last few years by recent research—at least in terms of the general changes most children go through: the normative patterns of development. There is plenty of controversy, still, about the particular limitations that characterise very young children’s understanding of other minds, and about the nature and timing of the cognitive changes that take place between two and five years (Frye & Moore, 1991; Perner, 1991; Wellman, 1990). However, there is general agreement that major developments take place as children reach their fifth year. What has been surprisingly little examined is the significance of such developments for children’s real-life relationships. Interest in autism is the only domain in which the connections between understanding of other minds and children’s social behaviour has been considered (see, for instance, Baron-Cohen, Tager-Flusberg, & Cohen, in press). Yet what we understand of others’ inner states must profoundly influence the kind of relationships we have, and changes in children’s understanding of the emotions, desires, and mental states of those with whom they have close relationships should surely have major significance for the nature of those relationships.
