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This study focuses on the ability of preschool children to differentiate the real from the imaginary as depicted in images. A first experiment shows that this ability develops between 3 and 5 years, with a sharp increase in performance during the fourth year. It appears to be correlated with the grammatical and lexical capacities employed by children in recounting the events depicted in a cartoon, especially language concerning the mental states, perceptions and cognitions, of the characters. In a second experiment, children were given the help of an adult who explained the protagonist’s ignorance or false beliefs. Our results show that this support only significantly improved performances in the image test for children aged 4 years. Taken together, our results suggest that the development of the iconic capacity corresponds to the development of metacognitive abilities, and that the effectiveness of the adult assistance depends upon the level of the child’s metarepresentational abilities.