Developmental steps in theory of mind of typical Chinese children and Chinese children with autism spectrum disorder

• The development of theory of mind (ToM) of Chinese typical and autistic children was explored.
• Tested by the scale of ToM, developmental sequences of two groups were compared.
• Autistic groups vs. typical group showed delayed and deviant ToM development.
• Present two groups showed different sequences from participants in previous studies.
• Mainstream/micro cultures effect ToM development of typical and autistic children.

This study investigated the developmental sequence of theory of mind (ToM) of 76 typical preschool children and 34 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using the five-task scale of ToM. Results showed that the developmental sequence of typical children in the five ToM tasks differed from that of children with ASD. Specifically, typical children had the following sequence for the five tasks from the easiest to the hardest: diverse desire, knowledge access, diverse belief, content false belief, and hidden emotion tasks. Children with ASD had a significantly poorer performance on ToM tasks than typical children and had a varied sequence for diverse belief and knowledge. The developmental sequence of ToM of both Chinese typical children and children with ASD is different from those of children from other countries as presented by previous studies. The present study provides substantial evidence supporting the cultural and atypical developmental influence on ToM development.