Multidimensional theory of mind assessments should include items assessing both explicit theory of mind (theory of mind knowledge) and applied theory of mind (application of theory of mind knowledge in real-life contexts). However, the two theory of mind scores cannot be interpreted collectively to identify children having mismatched explicit and…

Recent accounts of social difficulties in autism suggest that autistic and non-autistic individuals mutually misunderstand each other. This assumption aligns with findings that mixed-neurotype interactions are less efficient than same-neurotype interactions. However, it remains unclear whether different outcomes between mixed- and same-neurotype…

Multi-sensory environments are widely used with autistic children. However, there are no data on how autistic children choose to spend time in the room and how this relates to their sensory, behavioural and intellectual profiles. We observed the frequency and duration of visits to multi-sensory environment equipment of 41 autistic children during…

There is an ongoing debate as to whether autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is expressed differently in women than men. It is unclear whether differences found are specific to autism or merely reflecting normative development. In this study, we compared sex differences in developmental trajectories of autistic and co-occurring psychopathological…

Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are more likely to have suicidal thoughts and behaviors. However, little research delineates the temporal and mechanistic associations between potential risk factors and suicidality in autistic individuals. We assessed 129 autistic and 121 age-matched and sex-assigned-at-birth-matched…

Autistic individuals are at significantly higher risk of suicide than non-autistic individuals, with transition-aged youth at potentially the highest risk. While lower executive function (EF) skills have been significantly associated with suicide risk in other clinical samples, the link between EF and suicidality has not yet been examined for…

Many individuals with autism experience challenges using language in social contexts (i.e., pragmatic language). Characterizing and understanding pragmatic variability is important to inform intervention strategies and the etiology of communication challenges in autism; however, current manual coding-based methods are often time and labor…

This article assesses nutritional intake and adequacy in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), subdiagnostic autistic symptoms and children with typical development (TD). In total, 77 children diagnosed with ASD, 40 with subdiagnostic autistic symptoms and 333 children with TD were assessed. A validated food frequency questionnaire was…

This study examined adaptive functioning, strategies used to develop adaptive functioning skills, and areas where additional services could benefit autistic young adults without intellectual disability. Participants were 21 autistic young adults and at least one parent of each young adult. Quantitative analyses replicated previous reports of an…

Face recognition is a fundamental function that requires holistic processing. Differences in face processing have been consistently identified in autistic children, but it is unknown whether these differences persist across the adult lifespan. Using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging, we measured holistic face processing with a…

Children with autism spectrum disorder are often reported to have more sleep deficits and poorer sleep quality compared with children with typical development. However, most previous studies have serious methodological limitations, such as varying sample sizes in the comparison groups, wide age range of participants, and body mass index not…

Recent theories of autism have emphasised the cognitive strengths and weaknesses in those with autism, which are also seen to some degree in non-clinical samples with higher autistic-like traits. The dual process theory of autism proposes that people with autism and non-clinical people with a higher degree of autistic-like traits have a propensity…

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders typically exhibit reduced visual attention towards social stimuli relative to neurotypical individuals. Importantly, however, attention is not a static process, and it remains unclear how such effects may manifest over time. Exploring these momentary changes in gaze behaviour can more clearly illustrate…

Repetitive and restricted behaviours are a core feature of autism, and cognition in autistic individuals may also be repetitive and restricted. We aimed to investigate the relationship between repetitive behaviours and repetitive thinking. We predicted that autistic people would experience more repetitive, perseverative, visual and negative…

The "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'" (5th ed.) Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder is meant to capture the social elements of communication dysfunction in children who do not meet autism spectrum disorder criteria. It is unclear whether Social (Pragmatic) Communication Disorder captures these elements…