Görme yetersizliğinden etkilenmiş çocuklar ve gören çocukların zihin kuramı becerileri ile çalışma belleğinin karşılaştırılması

The purpose of this study was to compare the Theory of Mind (ToM) skills and verbal working memory performances of children with visual impairments and sighted school-aged children aged who were between the age of 6 and 10. Participants of the study consisted of a total 40 children, children with visual impairments, and 21 sighted children. ToM skills of the participants including first-order false belief attribution, second-order belief attribution, and verbal working memory performances were examined in the study. Verbal intelligence scores of the participants were matched to each other. Each participant was assessed via three different first-order false belief attribution tasks and three second-order belief attribution tasks. In order to assess the verbal working memory performances of the participants, the Working Memory Scale was utilized. Study findings showed that there was no significant difference between the ToM scores of the children with visual impairments and the typically developing sighted children. In addition, the results indicated that children with visual impairments had higher verbal working memory scores than sighted children. Findings showed that there was no relationship between ToM skills and working memory performances of children. The research findings were discussed and suggestions for future research were recommended.