Viewed through a social justice lens, preschool expulsion is an educational equity issue. This study focused on prior expulsion from preschool and child-care in a longitudinal study of 203 autistic children, ages 4 to 7. By parent report, 16%--one out of six autistic children--had been expelled from a preschool or child-care setting prior to…

The newest edition of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (5th ed., DSM-5) introduced substantial changes to the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder, including new severity level ratings for social communication and restricted and repetitive behavior domains. The purpose of this study was to evaluate…

ASD symptomology and behavioral problems pose challenges for children with ASD in school. Disagreement between parents and teachers in ratings of children's behavior problems may provide clinically relevant information. We examined parent-teacher disagreement on ratings of behavior problems among children with ASD during the fall and spring of the…

There has been little research connecting underlying emotion processes (e.g., emotion regulation) to frequent behavior problems in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examined the stability of emotion regulation and its relationship with other aspects of child functioning. Participants included 108 children with ASD,…

The associations between student-teacher relationship (STR) quality and externalizing behavior problems in school were examined among 166 children with ASD (82% boys, ages 4-7 years) across three assessments over a 1.5-year period; IQs in the sample range from 50 to 139 (M = 88.7). Unlike other non-ASD populations, the association between STR…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at heightened risk for developing comorbid psychological disorders, including anxiety disorders, which may be further exacerbated by the presence of externalizing behaviors. Here, we examined how structural language and pragmatic language predicted anxiety and externalizing behaviors. Participants…

The quality of early student-teacher relationships (STRs) has been shown to predict children's school adjustment, and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at risk for poor quality STRs. The present study examined 162 children with ASD (ages 4-7) and their teachers to evaluate student, teacher, and classroom characteristics that…

Data from a large prospective longitudinal study (n = 1,239) was used to investigate the association between observed sensitive parenting in early childhood and children's representations of family relationships as measured by the Family Drawing Paradigm (FDP) in first grade as well as the extent to which these representations partially mediate…