Abstract: The classical paradigm of research on theory of mind mainly focused on 3~5 years old children. But with research in this domain deepened, there emerged an important trend that many investigations began to take into account development of theory of mind in before-4-year and after-5-year olds recently. The author calls this noteworthy trend life-span orientation of research on theory of mind. Another evidence supporting this point is that some scholars have posed explicit views of life-span-developing theory of mind. It is the author’s anticipation that this orientation of research on theory of mind should be one of the most important trends in the endeavor of exploring the conspicuous area in the future.

Key words: theory of mind, research, life-span, orientation