Storybooks as a context for theory of mind intervention: a systematic review

Theory of mind (ToM), the ability to understand others’ cognitive and emotional states, is a critical component of children’s overall development, including social skills as well as language and literacy development. While individual empirical studies have sought to understand the role of interventions in promoting ToM in diverse child and adolescent populations, no study to date has looked across multiple articles to examine the efficacy of interventions employing adult–child storybook-based interactions on children’s cognitive and affective ToM abilities. Applying a systematic review method, we reviewed and analyzed studies to evaluate the effectiveness of storybook interventions and provide an overview of studies’ interventions and findings. Interventions in educational settings led by teachers were among the most effective implementations of storybook-based interventions for building ToM. One critical component contributing to the effectiveness of the interventions was the additional, extratextual discussion of the thoughts and perspectives of both the characters and the child. We offer implications and recommendations based on these findings.