Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurobiological disorder that significantly impairs children's social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and behaviors. Questions about theory of mind (ToM) deficits in ASD have generated a large number of empirical studies. This article reviews current studies of the relationship between ToM and ASD, including contributions to the understanding of social and academic manifestations of ASD. Several themes emerge: Enhanced language and verbal abilities facilitate better ToM understanding; implicit ToM elements that incorporate parallel processing pose more difficulties than explicit ones; and general and multimodal interventions are more effective than specific interventions. A brief overview is followed by a review of emerging research on the role of domain-general cognitive skills (executive function) and central coherence in the development of ToM. Next, a summary of studies addressing ToM across the development and social and academic manifestations is presented. The article ends with a critical review of ToM intervention studies, which suggests that generalization may be more likely to occur when ToM is targeted as part of broader sociocognitive interventions rather than as an isolated skill.

Despite the robust pragmatic deficit in HFASD, reflected in conversational capabilities, involvement in friendship relationships and high cognitive capabilities were linked to more intact pragmatic capacities. Theoretical and therapeutic implications are discussed.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulties in theory of mind (ToM) and executive function (EF), which may be linked because one domain (EF) affects the other (ToM). Group differences (ASD vs. typical development) were examined in both cognitive domains, as well as EF's associations and regressions with ToM. Participants included 29 intellectually able preschoolers with ASD and 30 typical preschoolers, aged 3-6 years. EF tasks included planning and cognitive shifting measures. ToM tasks included predicting and explaining affective and location false-belief tasks. The novelty of this study lies in its in-depth examination of ToM explanation abilities in ASD alongside the role of verbal abilities (VIQ). Significant group differences emerged on most EF and ToM measures, in favor of typically developing children. Overall in the study group, EF-planning skills, EF-cognitive shifting and VIQ significantly contributed to the explained variance of ToM measures. Implications are discussed regarding the social-cognitive deficit in ASD.