Visuospatial-based block-building training for improving emotion understanding and theory of mind in 4.5-year-olds

Abstract

Most existing training programs designed to enhance children's sociocognitive abilities, such as emotion understanding and theory of mind, rely heavily on language-based approaches. This study investigated the effectiveness of a novel visuospatial-based block-building training protocol compared with traditional language-based training in improving children's understanding of emotions and minds. A total of 106 4.5-year-old children ( M age = 53.77 months, SD = 2.53 months; 53% girls) from Hong Kong participated in a pretest-posttest training study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three training conditions: (a) block building with verbal cues, (b) block building with visual-verbal cues, or (c) dialogic reading. Each group received 1.5-hr weekly sessions for 6 weeks. Posttraining assessments showed significant gains in visuospatial perspective-taking and social-cognitive abilities, particularly among children in the block-building group with visual-verbal cues. Notably, the visuospatial-based training was as effective as the language-based approach in improving emotion understanding and theory of mind. These findings illuminate the interconnectedness of visuospatial perspective-taking and sociocognitive abilities and suggest that embodied simulation mechanisms may underlie psychological perspective taking. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).