A growing body of research shows a close association between children’s internal state
talk and their ability to represent mental states. However, these studies are largely restricted to the
observation of young children interacting with family members or friends. Much less is known about
internal state talk in school aged children. This study addresses this gap by exploring individual
differences in third grade children’s internal states talk in relation to theory of mind and school
competence, as indexed by academic competence and beliefs about learning, whilst controlling for
language ability. A group of 57 children (mean age = 90.25; SD = 3.28; range = 86-94) were individually tested for: their theory of mind understanding (Test of Emotion Comprehension, Pons & Harris
2000; Theory of Mind Test, Pons & Harris 2002), frequency of internal state talk produced in a story
task (Lecce & Pagnin 2007), and beliefs about learning. In addition, teachers rated children’s school
achievement via the academic competence subscale of the Social Skills Rating System (Gresham &
Elliott 1990).
Results showed a significant relationship between internal state talk, beliefs about learning and
academic competence. A hierarchical regression demonstrated that children’s internal states talk accounts for a significant percentage of variance in the measures of academic competence and beliefs
about learning, when controlling for theory of mind and language. These findings highlight the
relevance of internal states talk for children’s school achievement
