Since february of 2024, this paper has been under writing and will be submited to the Special Issue “Language and Cognitive Development in Deaf Children” from the  Behavioral Sciences (ISSN 2076-328X) on 25 of April.

Behavioral Sciences is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal on psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, behavioral biology and behavioral genetics published monthly online by MDPI. Impact factor 2.5, citescore 2.6.

Abstract: Theory of Mind (ToM) is a construct that includes a range of connected abilities linked to the understanding of others mental states. During the last 3 decades, ToM development has been extensively studied in deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) individuals compared to typically hearing (TH) individuals and themselves. As early diagnosis of deafness and hearing technology have greatly improved over the years, differences on DHH ToM task performance across this time span might be expected. The current systematic review (SR) aims to synthesize which ToM skills have been assessed in DHH individuals and answer the following PICO question: Do DHH individuals (Population), compared to a control sample of TH and/or among themselves (Comparator), in an assessment of ToM (Intervention) have differentiated results (Outcome)?. 97 papers were included. The SR found that false belief is the area most studied. Furthermore, TH participants, in general, outperformed their DHH peers in ToM measures. There is variability linked to family hearing status and quality of interactions, language modality and across different ToM abilities assessed. Despite recent advances in diagnosis and hearing technology, DHH individuals continue to differ on ToM development. However, other ToM areas, aside from false belief, require further research.