Bilingual children showed a nonsignificant advantage on the hardest theory-of-mind comprehension question, and MAIN comprehension questions may be too easy for the age range¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r1 · q3
Currency · newest study 2026 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Bilinguals' higher accuracy on the ToM2 question was not statistically significant. → Hayes 2026 q3 i? Comprehension scores approached ceiling by age four to five, suggesting the MAIN comprehension questions may be too easy. → Hayes 2026

Evidence¶

Hayes 2026¶

Hayes, R. L., and Kan, P. F. (2026). Shared and divergent patterns in narrative skills: comparing English monolingual and Japanese–English bilingual children. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1747702

q3 · i? · associational · r1

Chi-square comparison of comprehension question accuracy across 56 children; monolinguals scored 36% and bilinguals 54% on ToM2. The article also reports the mean comprehension score reached 8.6/10 by four years old and 9.25/10 by five years old, with negatively skewed distributions (Shapiro–Wilk W = 0.75, p < 0.001).

"The accuracy was equal for the theory of mind (ToM) 1 question, and the bilinguals’ accuracy was much higher for the ToM2 question, although not significant, X2 = (1, N = 56) = 1.82, p = 0.18."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Reading and Language — predictor: learners who differ on it differ in outcomes

Related Claims¶

• No macrostructure measure differs significantly between bilingual and monolingual children, while age improves story structure, internal state terms, comprehension, and aggregate scores but not structural complexity — related
• Faces-task accuracy was near ceiling with no language-group or gender differences, and gender was dropped from RT analyses — related
• Younger children (3–5-year-olds) answered story comprehension questions less accurately than all older age groups — related