[The theory of the mind of the autistic child]

Theory of the mind is the capacity to present oneself with the desires, beliefs and intentions of others. This capacity is acquired by children around the age of seven. However, a deficit of this theory is present in people with autism with a mental age equivalent or superior to seven years old. This difficulty seems to be explained by a developmental delay specific to the mechanism of the mind (Baron-Cohen, 1989a). This delay seems to be associated to their own diagnostic criterias, namely their cognitive difficulties (Baron-Cohen, 1989b), deficit in speech capacities (Sparrevohn et Howie, 1995) and to their altercations in social interactions (Holroyd et Baron-Cohen, 1993). This article proposes a review of the literature on the issue of theory of the mind as well as a description of two approaches, namely executive functions and central coherence.