Autism is often associated with early developmental delays in language and motor skills. However, little is known about the complex dynamic processes that drive the co-development of such early difficulties. The aim of the present study was to model the parallel growth of language and motor skills in a cohort of infants and to explore differences…

Robust evidence supports the efficacy of early autism intervention. Despite broad consensus that earlier intervention leads to better outcomes, evidence for this has been limited to correlational studies. This study examined timing effects of the Early Social Interaction (ESI) model, a parent-implemented intervention, using a complete crossover…

Social cognition is a set of complex processes that mediate much of human behavior. The development of these skills is related to and interdependent on other cognitive processes, particularly inhibitory control. Brain regions associated with inhibitory control and social cognition overlap functionally and structurally, especially with respect to…

Purpose: Differences in communication development impact long-term outcomes of children with autism. Previous research has identified factors associated with communication in children with autism, but much of the variance in communication skill remains unexplained. It has been proposed that early differences in sensory responsiveness (i.e.,…

Siblings play an important role in shaping the developmental trajectories of individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Having siblings has been associated with better social communication, non-verbal communication, and theory of mind abilities in autism spectrum disorder. However, little is known about the impact of siblings on adaptive skill…

The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale was administered to 54 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) before age 2, and a matching group of 18 toddlers with developmental delay (DD). The group with ASD was more impaired on all scales of the Vineland than DD peers. When 18 ASD/DD pairs very closely matched on age, verbal and nonverbal…

A major topic of debate is whether children with autism spectrum disorder should be educated in inclusive or specialized settings. We examined the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of delivering the Group-Early Start Denver Model to children with autism spectrum disorder in inclusive versus specialized classrooms. We randomly assigned 44…

Peer interaction can be challenging in autism spectrum disorder, but naturalistic peer-observation scales for preschoolers are scarce. This study examined psychometric qualities of the newly developed Autism Peer Interaction Observation Scale. We tested the Autism Peer Interaction Observation Scale to (a) characterize peer interactions of…

Background: Individuals with fragile-X syndrome exhibit developmental delay, hyperexcitation and social anxiety; they also show lack of attention and hyperactivity. Few studies have investigated whether levels of functioning change with increasing age. Here, we explored developmental changes across adolescence in the cognitive and behavioural…

Children with autism spectrum disorder have a high risk of vision problems yet little is known about their vision care. This cross-sectional survey study, therefore, examined vision care among 351 children with autism spectrum disorder ages 6-17 years in the United States or Canada who were enrolled in the Autism Treatment Network Registry. Vision…

This study assessed the relationship between emotion recognition ability and social skills in 42 young children with autistic disorder aged 4-7 years. The analyses revealed that accuracy in recognition of sadness, but not happiness, anger or fear, was associated with higher ratings on the Vineland-II Socialization domain, above and beyond the…

With increased interest in the early diagnosis and treatment of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), more attention has been called to the motor skills of very young children with ASD. This study describes the gross and fine motor skills of a cross-sectional group of 162 children with ASD between the ages of 12 and 36 months, as well as…

The Social Attribution Task, Multiple Choice is introduced as a measure of implicit social cognitive ability in children, addressing a key challenge in quantification of social cognitive function in autism spectrum disorder, whereby individuals can often be successful in explicit social scenarios, despite marked social adaptive deficits. The…

There is uncertainty about the proportion of children with autism spectrum disorders who do not develop phrase speech during the preschool years. The main purpose of this study was to examine this ratio in a population-based community sample of children. The cohort consisted of 165 children (141 boys, 24 girls) with autism spectrum disorders aged…

The primary aim of this study was to investigate common family experiences during the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnostic process, and the child and family variables that may relate to different diagnostic outcomes. A secondary aim of this study was to evaluate families' knowledge of the research support for various interventions. To…