Preface and Acknowledgments

Research on language and theory of mind (ToM) spans multiple disciplines. While the field of developmental psychology is most prominent, theory and evidence are also found in allied fields such as education, philosophy, and psycholinguistics. Research in the field also spans multiple decades. Overall, there is a lot of ground to cover. Or, put another way, it takes a lot of ground to work out how a construct as complicated and multifaceted as language is connected to children’s understanding of another complicated construct—the mind. And that ground is not smooth and ordered. For instance, there are deep differences among the theoretical frameworks found in the field. Conflicting findings, often stemming from different paradigms and starting assumptions, cloud the empirical picture. In our own work on language and ToM, we have experienced the need for a cohesive synthesis and analysis of the expansive literature. There have been times when we wished there was an up-to-date book that we could consult to gain a clearer understanding of an aspect of the literature that complemented whatever problems we were working on at the time. We reasoned that we were not alone, and that other researchers felt the same way. Given the diverse and widespread nature of the literature, a book-length treatment seemed to be the option most proportionate to the task. The task, to be specific, is working through a problem that almost everyone in the field agrees is important: What are the multiple ways that language is connected to children’s ToM?