{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,15]],"date-time":"2026-09-15T13:47:57Z","timestamp":1789480077120,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":55,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,15]],"date-time":"2025-08-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1755216000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovaci\u00f3n y Universidades (MICIU) of Spain","award":["PID2020-118419GB-I00"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["PID2020-118419GB-I00"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Behavioral Sciences"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The understanding of hidden emotions\u2014situations in which individuals deliberately express an emotion different from what they genuinely feel\u2014is a key skill in theory of mind (ToM) development. This ability allows children to reason about discrepancies between internal emotional states and external expressions and is closely tied to linguistic development, particularly vocabulary related to mental states, which supports complex emotional reasoning. Children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH), especially those born to hearing non-signing families and raised in oral language environments, may face challenges in early language exposure. This can impact the development of social and emotional skills, including the ability to understand hidden emotions. This study compares the understanding of hidden emotions in hearing children (n = 59) and DHH children (n = 44) aged 7\u201312 years. All children were educated in spoken language environments; none of the DHH participants had native exposure to sign language. Participants completed a hidden emotions task involving illustrated stories where a character showed a certain emotion in front of two observers, only one of whom was aware of the character\u2019s true emotional state. The task assessed children\u2019s understanding of the character\u2019s emotional state as well as their ability to reason about the impact of hiding emotions on the beliefs of the observers. The results showed that the hearing children outperformed their DHH peers in understanding hidden emotions. This difference was not attributed to hearing status per se but to language use. Specifically, children\u2019s spontaneous use of cognitive verbs (e.g., think or know) in their explanations predicted task performance across the groups, emphasizing the role of mental state language in emotional reasoning. These findings underscore the importance of early and accessible language exposure in supporting the emotional and social cognitive development of DHH children.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/bs15081106","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,15]],"date-time":"2025-08-15T08:39:07Z","timestamp":1755247147000},"page":"1106","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Language and Hidden Emotion Understanding in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Children: The Role of Mentalistic Verbs"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1377-8677","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alaitz","family":"Intxaustegi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, Universitat de Girona, 17004 Girona, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0702-0082","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Elisabet","family":"Serrat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, Universitat de Girona, 17004 Girona, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3012-4202","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anna","family":"Amad\u00f3","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, Sociology and Social Work, Universitat de Lleida, 25001 Lleida, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7107-0450","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Francesc","family":"Sidera","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, Universitat de Girona, 17004 Girona, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Astington, J. 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