UCLA

Children who display cognitive perspective taking (CPT) abilities demonstrate the awareness that others have knowledge and understanding independent from their own. This ability is an aspect of theory of mind, which is linked to verbal conversational skills. Written language, however, differs from conversation, as it lacks a reciprocal exchange between reader and writer. Writers must anticipate the needs of their non-present readers. In this mixed-methods study, I examined whether CPT abilities in kindergarten related to audience awareness in 2nd grade narrative writing. Following this analysis, I further explored a subsample of students’ writing in order to determine how evidence of CPT appeared in narratives. This exploration was contextualized using interviews with participants’ 2nd grade teachers on the topics of perspective taking and audience awareness. ANCOVA indicated no significant relationship between CPT abilities in kindergarten and audience awareness in 2nd grade. Most students in the subsample had begun to demonstrate features of CPT in their writing by 2nd grade. However, students with higher CPT abilities in kindergarten showed qualitative differences in the way they presented emotions, speech and dialogue, and an understanding of mental models through their writing.