Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by deficits in social communication and repetitive behaviors. How specific anatomical alterations contribute to the clinical profile of autism spectrum disorder remains largely uncharacterized. We have previously shown that parvalbumin-positive Chandelier cells, a specific…

Little is currently known about the autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-related difficulties of females narrowly below the ASD diagnostic threshold and whether the disorder conceptualisation should be broadened to capture their presentations. We extracted fine-grained information from the assessment reports of 222 children who were either diagnosed…

Autistic individuals with intellectual disability are at greater risk of experiencing anxiety than their non-autistic peers without intellectual disability. Anxiety in this group may present as behaviour that challenges, often leading families to reach out to healthcare or support services. However, many families experience difficulties accessing…

Studies have shown that there are differences between the presentations of males and females diagnosed with autism. There remains a developing understanding about how the presentation of autism differs between boys (hereafter referred to as 'assigned males at birth') and girls (assigned females at birth). This study sought to investigate the…

Parents of autistic children experience more parenting stress and are at increased risk for poor mental and physical health compared with parents of neurotypical children; however, not all parents are distressed. The present study used a person-centered analytic approach to identify profiles of the parenting experience in a sample of 183 mothers…

Youth with autism spectrum conditions have been shown to be at an increased risk for bullying victimization. The overall aim of this study was to identify factors associated with increased risk for bullying victimization in youth with autism during middle childhood to early adolescence (aged 5-12 years) and to explore the potential time-ordered…

Autistic people appear to be at increased risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, and experiences involving violence or sexual abuse appear to be common in this population. However, knowledge concerning trauma in autistic people with co-occurring intellectual disabilities is limited. In this cross-sectional study, we explored the prevalence of…

There is limited literature on the association between parenting practices, parenting stress and externalising behaviours in autistic children. We investigated whether parenting practices mediate the association between parenting stress and externalising behaviours. Parents of school-aged autistic children (n = 138) completed an online survey on…

Executive function challenges are commonly reported in the home setting for children with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis (hereafter, autism), but little is known about these challenges in the school setting. A total of 337 youth (autism, N = 241 and typically developing, N = 96) were assessed using Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive…

When one sibling has autism spectrum disorder, the sibling relationship is often characterized by poorer quality with fewer interactions. Because sibling relationships provide a vital social framework for development, they have the capacity to be a risk or protective factor, depending on the quality of the relationship. One way to improve the…

Autistic children and adults who are non-verbal/minimally verbal or have an intellectual disability have often been excluded from Autism Spectrum Disorder research. Historical, practical and theoretical reasons for this exclusion continue to deter some researchers from work with this underserved population. We discuss why these reasons are neither…

Autism is associated with significantly higher rates of internalizing and externalizing disorders compared to neurotypical (NT) individuals. Emotion dysregulation (ED) is prevalent in autistic individuals and has been proposed to underlie both internalizing disorders and behavioral challenges in autism. This study sought to use a meta-analytic…

Research regarding autistic children's sibling relationship quality is mixed, although some literature suggests poorer quality compared to children with other disabilities or who are neurotypical. Little is known about how the clinical characteristics of autistic children relate to parent perceptions of sibling relationship quality. We drew data…

An increasing number of studies are investigating the links between autism and borderline personality disorder. Studies report overlapping differences and the challenges in differentiating between these two diagnostic labels. In practice, there are many people, especially autistic women, who feel that they were misdiagnosed with borderline…

This pilot study investigates the feasibility and assesses the impact of "Lactobacillus plantarum" PS128 probiotics on the neurological function in Rett syndrome. We conducted a randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled trial on Rett syndrome with MECP2 mutation aged between 1 and 50 years in Taiwan. In this pilot study,…