Background and Aim : Theory of mind refers to the ability to understand the others have mental states that can be different from one's own mental states or facts. This study aimed to investigate the relationship of theory of mind and executive functions in normal hearing, deaf, and cochlear-implanted children.

Methods: The study population consisted of normal, deaf and cochlear-implanted girl students in Mashhad city, Iran. Using random sampling, 30 children (10 normal, 10 deaf and 10 cochlear-implanted) in age groups of 8-12 years old were selected. To measure the theoty of mind, theory of mind 38-item scale and to assess executive function, Coolidge neuropsychological and personality test was used. Research data were analyzed using the Spearman correlation coefficient, analysis of variance and Kruskal-Wallis tests.

Results: There was a significant difference between the groups in the theory of mind and executive function subscales, organization, planning-decision-making, and inhibition. Between normal and deaf groups (p=0.01), as well as cochlear-implanted and deaf groups (p=0.01), there was significant difference in planning decision-making subscale. There was not any significant relationship between the theory of mind and executive functions generally or the theory of mind and executive function subscales in these three groups independently.

Conclusion: Based on our findings, cochlear-implanted and deaf children have lower performance in theory of mind and executive function compared with normal hearing children.

Background and Aim: The different studies in normal children and those with developmental language disorders showed the relationship between language and development of theory of mind (ToM). But, there is not agreement between authors about role of language aspects (lexicon, semantic, syntax, and pragmatics) in development of theory of mind. The aim of this review article was the study of relationship of aspects of language and development of theory of mind in normal children and those with developmental language disorder.

Methods: This study was a narrative review. The Persian and English published articles during 1995 to 2012 were searched from different websites [Cochreane library, Proquest, Springer, Ebsco, Sciencedirect, PubMed, Magiran and Scientific Information Database (SID)]. Keywords included theory of mind, language, syntax, syntactic complement, semantic, lexicon and pragmatics. Then, the titles and abstracts of the related articles about relationship between language and theory of mind were selected and studied.

Conclusion: The language is the most important factor and predictor of theory-of-mind development. Although, lexicon, semantics, pragmatics and general language were important in development of theory of mind, but most of the articles had stressed the role of syntactic complements (sentences with mental or communicative verbs) in its development in normal children and children with developmental language disorders. As syntactic complements are necessary prerequisites for development of theory of mind, particularly for false belief concept, it is predicted that focus on training these aspects in children with developmental language disorders can influence on both theory of mind development and language complexity.

Background and Aim: Empathy is a basic human skill that is important in daily life. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of the theory of mind in predicting empathy.

Methods: This study adopted a causal-comparative design. 40 students with profound hearing impairment and 40 students with normal hearing, aged between 8 and 14, participated in the study. Instruments including false belief tasks and empathy questionnaires were distributed to the participants. For multivariate analysis of variance, a correlation analysis and multiple regression methods were used.

Results: Results indicated a significant difference between the total score of false belief tasks and empathy in students with hearing impairment and those with normal hearing (p<0.001 ). A significant relationship between the theory of mind and empathy was found in both groups (p<0.01). Also theory of mind could predict the empathy (p=0.001).

Conclusion: Based on the obtained results, significant reduction in the theory of mind and empathy was seen in students with hearing impairment. Therefore, training programs that focus on social skills are required for students with hearing impairment in order to address this problem. Moreover, training materials need to be tailored to their cognitive understanding.

Background and Aim: Students with hearing impairment show delayed development of theory of mind (ToM) compared with normal children. One factor impacting development of theory of mind is parent-child interaction. The present study investigated the relationship between maternal emotional intelligence and theory of mind in students with hearing impairment.

Methods: The present study employed correlational research. 40 students with profound hearing impairment (age range: 8-14 years) and their mothers were selected to participate. Measurement instruments included the false belief task and emotional intelligence questionnaire. The questionnaire was completed by mothers. Correlational analysis and multiple regression methods were used for data analysis.

Results: Results indicated no significant correlation between the total score on false belief task and the emotional intelligence score and its components (p>0.01). Multiple regression analysis showed that maternal emotional intelligence and its components cannot predict student's scores in false belief tasks (p>0.01).

Conclusion: The results show that there is no significant correlation between maternal emotional intelligence and theory of mind in students with hearing impairment. Therefore, maternal emotional intelligence cannot predict the development of theory of mind in students with hearing impairment.

Background and Aim: Various studies indicate that deaf children compared with hearing children have problems in all aspects of emotional development, including facial expression, emotional understanding of display rules, mixed and contradictory emotions and theory of mind. This article reviews studies of impaired emotional development in children with hearing impairment.

Recent Findings: Some findings indicate that young deaf children function similar to hearing children. The difficulty in understanding display rules experienced by deaf children can be explained by appealing to their inability to adequately express emotions in emotion-eliciting contexts, as opposed to their difficulty in understanding mental states. Overall, research findings indicate that emotional understanding in various aspects and dimensions is associated with children's language abilities.

Conclusion: Results obtained show that more aspects of deaf children 's emotional development (such as interpretation and recognition of facial expression) are similar to that of their peers. However, deaf children performed more poorly in tasks which required experience in understanding display rules and theory of mind . Recent findings generally demonstrate that language plays an important role in the emotional development of children. Therefore, deaf children in comparison to hearing children are less able performers.