Ke a Leboha Ngaka Ophetse! is the first book in African Languages that is informed by research on Theory of the Mind. The idea behind the book, comes from many years of work by Prof Jill de Villiers who is a Developmental Psychologist at Smith College, MA, USA. 

The collaboration started in 2007. Since then, they have co-authored several articles on language and how child language can be used as a window into the mind focussing on isiXhosa.

In psychology and psycholinguistics, there is a hypothesis which claims that we are able to understand other people’s mental state, and also that their mental state may be different from ours: These include states such as intentions, beliefs, emotions, thoughts, and so on. These are associated with certain verbs and grammatical constructions in language.

Ke a Leboha Ngaka Ophetse! is informed by this research and is adapted from the English version. Given the lack of intervention resources in African languages, this book is one of the first that addresses these issues in South Africa.

The book will soon be available in all the 10 official languages of South Africa. The English version can be ordered online.