Not everyone agrees. Some people with autism pass TOM tests with no trouble.
Interesting. Now I'm trying to remember what I was taught (I'm a TA and have training in this area). We did cover theory of mind in some detail with specific examples of how to identify it, but I can't recall now if it was considered a given in Autism or if it's simply a characteristic that many but not all share. The students on the spectrum who I've worked with definitely lacked it, and I had a student who was very spectrum-like in other ways but failed to meet the criteria for ASD, and he had good theory of mind. But maybe my exposure has been too limited.
It just goes to show you how much of a "spectrum" this profile really is... as they say, when you've met one person with Autism, you've met one person with Autism.
