Given the importance of early intervention services for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), early diagnosis of children is critical. At present, several ASD screeners exist for young children, with the "Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers" ("M-CHAT") being one of the most widely researched. While the "M-CHAT" has good sensitivity…

Highly preferred stimuli were identified via two preference assessments (based on Fisher et al., 1992), the second of which included stimuli that were ranked low in the initial preference assessment. Following the preference assessments, a subset of stimuli was evaluated as reinforcers in single- and concurrent-operant arrangements. In general,…

There is debate in the current literature regarding the permanence of an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis. We undertook a systematic review of the diagnostic stability of ASD to summarise current evidence. A comprehensive search strategy was used to identify studies. Participants were children with ASD. Risk of bias was assessed by…

A literature review completed by Bauer and Blunden (2008) determined that compared to objective measures, subjective assessments of sleep for typically developing children (e.g., parental reports) were of limited utility. No comparable literature review has been undertaken to determine whether subjective measures are appropriate for assessing…

This study examined the methods reportedly used to identify reinforcers in 97 skill acquisition studies involving people with autism published from 2005 through 2009. Results indicated that 32 of the 97 studies (33%) provided such information. Interviews with persons familiar with participants (e.g., parents, teachers) were the most-used…

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs) are well-known for engagement in challenging behaviors. Unfortunately, due to its absence as a criterion for diagnosis in the "DSM-IV-TR", little attention has been paid to the endorsement rates of such behaviors. However, a recently developed measure to assist in the diagnosis of infants and toddlers…

The repetitive behaviour questionnaire (RBQ) (Turner, 1995) is one of the three most commonly used interview/questionnaire measures of repetitive behaviour (Honey et al., in preparation). Despite this there is a scarcity of information concerning its structure, reliability and validity. The psychometric properties of the RBQ were examined when…

Anxiety disorders are among the most common comorbid conditions in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), although assessment presents unique challenges. Many symptoms of anxiety appear to overlap with common presentations of autism. Furthermore, deficits in language and cognitive functioning make it difficult for such…

Pica is a very serious and often life threatening problem which occurs largely in persons with developmental disabilities. The topic has received sporadic attention from researchers for several decades. This paper reviews definitions, diagnostic implications, causes, prevalence, and assessment methods that have been described in the research…

A large proportion of national education and treatment centers for persons with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), including those providing applied behavior analysis (ABA)-based services, show a relatively high percentage of agreement among practitioners on the instruments they routinely use for a variety of purposes, including curriculum design…

One method of conducting preference assessments with individuals who have autism involves measuring the time spent by the child engaging with various stimuli. Engagement is generally defined as showing interest in the stimulus but few studies have investigated the potential effects of the quality of engagement with the stimulus on reinforcer…

Assessment of children's restricted and repetitive behaviours offers potential opportunities to improve early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and timely access to interventions and support. To facilitate this requires understanding of the phenomenology of repetitive behaviours in ASD, including differentiating behaviours seen in ASD…

There has been an exponential growth in assessment methods to diagnose disorders on the autism spectrum. Many reasons for this trend exist and include advancing knowledge on how to make a diagnosis, the heterogeneity of the spectrum, the realization that different methods may be needed based on age and intellectual disability. Other factors…

A defining feature of children with autism includes stereotypy, characterized as restrictive and repetitive vocal and motor behavior. The current literature review seeks to (a) determine the number of empirical studies using behavioral interventions to treat stereotypy exhibited by children with autism or other pervasive development disorder, (b)…

The purpose of the present investigation was to refine and validate an assessment procedure to identify instructional variables influencing acquisition of conditional discriminations in children diagnosed with autism. An assessment was implemented with eleven individuals to identify the specific instructional variables influencing the individual's…