Development of Internal State Language Among Hindi-Speaking Primary Grade Children

The internal state terms like think, know, want, and imagine are essential to refer to other individuals' mental state for effective communication. The current study aims at finding out the development of internal state language among Hindi-speaking school children of India. Sixty children from three primary grades (6, 8, 10 years) were administered an internal state language task to test their knowledge of words describing various cognitive activities. There is a significant developmental change of internal state language from 6 years to 8 years old and 6 years to 10 years old, but not between 8 years and 10 years old, suggesting major developmental change within 6 to 8 years old. Implications of the study have been discussed in reading comprehension and decoding written and spoken sentences by the primary school children.