A set of cognitive processes needed for managing thought and action, including inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, attention, and planning.

Cognitive flexibility, working memory, inhibition, attention, and planning.

Working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility.

Reasoning, problem-solving, and planning.

Cognitive flexibility.

HTKS (Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders).

Working memory (visuospatial).

They are behavioural and child-friendly, making measurement easier.

They often measure multiple processes simultaneously, making interpretation difficult.

Understanding that others have desires, beliefs, and interpretations different from one’s own (Smith et al., 2003).

Predicting behaviour, explaining behaviour, and manipulating behaviour (socially navigating the world).

Around 18 months, when children reference parents for emotional reactions (social referencing).

Around age 4.

Whether a child understands that someone else can hold a belief that is different from reality.

Maxi puts chocolate in one cupboard; mother moves it; the child is asked where Maxi will look first.

Sally puts a marble in her basket; Anne moves it to a box; children must predict where Sally will look.

A deceptive box task testing understanding of one’s own and others’ beliefs.

Most 5-year-olds pass, many 4-year-olds pass, and 3-year-olds fail around 70% of the time, indicating a conceptual shift around age 4.

Language complexity or misunderstanding of the question.

When the question was changed to “Where will Maxi look first?”, more 3-year-olds passed, suggesting performance may reflect task demands rather than an absence of ToM.

When children posted a picture of what they originally believed, many more 3-year-olds answered correctly later.

Difficulty imagining not knowing what you currently know, which affects false belief reasoning (Ghrear et al., 2021).

The real state of the world is more attention-grabbing than a character’s belief, causing younger children to fail tasks.

Implicit belief understanding using eye gaze (anticipatory looking).

Children as young as 2 years 11 months looked toward the belief-consistent location but gave incorrect explicit answers, suggesting implicit ToM develops earlier than explicit ToM.

ToM development is gradual, not a sudden shift at age 4.

There is a strong correlation; early language predicts later ToM (Milligan et al., 2007).

Typically developing children pass ToM around a verbal mental age of 4, while autistic children require a verbal mental age of approximately 9 to pass.

Delays in exposure to language lead to delays in false-belief performance (Peterson & Siegal, 1999; Russell et al., 1998).

A lifelong neurodivergence/disability involving differences in social interaction, communication, and sensory experiences.

The hypothesis that autistic individuals have difficulty representing others’ mental states (Leslie, 1987; Baron-Cohen, 1995).

80% of typically developing and Down syndrome children passed, while only 20% of autistic children passed, suggesting a ToM delay or difference in autism.

Autistic children failed the Smarties Task at high rates.

Executive dysfunction, specifically difficulty inhibiting self-oriented responses (Frith & Happé).

Autistic children (8–15 years) were significantly worse at recognizing self-conscious emotions.

Autistic adolescents scored lower on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test and empathy tasks than their typically developing and ADHD peers.

The idea that autistic individuals may have impaired higher-order self-awareness (Frith & Happé, 1999; Frith, 2003).

Autistic participants did not show typical ventromedial PFC activation differences when thinking about self versus others.

Implicit ToM, as seen in gaze studies.

Cognitive development (EFs), language exposure, and social experience.

They confound linguistic ability, EF, and conceptual understanding.

Around 4–4.5 years.

Autistic children, deaf children, and children with language delays.