Prior eye-tracking studies involving autistic individuals have focused on total looking time or proportion of looking time to key regions of interest. These studies have not examined another important feature, the ability to sustain attention to stimuli. In particular, the ability to sustain attention to a dynamic social stimulus might reflect…

This study examined whether adaptive behaviour, emotional and behavioural challenges, and social skills, respectively, moderated the effect of a movement skill intervention on movement skills among preschool aged children with autism spectrum disorder. Twenty-seven participants with autism spectrum disorder (N = 13 experimental) between 3 and 5…

Although the early behaviors associated with autism spectrum disorder have been well characterized, many behaviors are also commonly observed in young children with other developmental delays and even in those with typical development. Therefore, consideration must be given to whether a child demonstrates sufficient autism spectrum disorder…

Restricted and repetitive behaviors are a core feature of autism spectrum disorder. This descriptive study documented the presence of restricted and repetitive behaviors in 85 toddlers with autism spectrum disorder as they interacted with their caregiver in a play interaction. For each child restricted and repetitive behavior, a caregiver…

We assessed potential factors associated with "current" or "ever" self-injurious behaviors, reported in the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised, among children with autism spectrum disorder (n = 692) from the Study to Explore Early Development. Data on factors examined were obtained from questionnaires, standardized clinical…

Infant social-communicative behavior, such as gaze to the face of an interactive partner, is an important early developmental skill. Children with autism spectrum disorder exhibit atypicalities in social-communicative behavior, including gaze and eye contact. Behavioral differences in infancy may serve as early markers of autism spectrum disorder…

Electrodermal activity was examined as a measure of physiological arousal within a naturalistic play context in 2-year-old toddlers (N = 27) with and without autism spectrum disorder. Toddlers with autism spectrum disorder were found to have greater increases in skin conductance level than their typical peers in response to administered play…

Previously, we adapted the Home Situations Questionnaire to measure behavioral non-compliance in everyday settings in children with pervasive developmental disorders. In this study, we further revised this instrument for use in autism spectrum disorder and examined its psychometric properties (referred to as the Home Situations…

Parents of 153 children with autism completed a questionnaire on early childhood behaviors of concern and age of onset. Parents identified the following concerns: gross motor difficulties; social awareness deficits; communication problems; and unusual preoccupations. There was a significant interval between parents first noticing abnormalities and…