This study tests a handwriting model for children and youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) that displays the relationships between handwriting process and product characteristics, and the predictors of these characteristics. Structural Equation Modelling was used to test the model for children and youth with ASD (n = 50) and typically…

Purpose: One of the core features that can be experienced by adults on the autism spectrum is hyper- and hyporeactivity to sensory stimuli. Research suggests that executive functioning (EF) impairments are related to sensory issues. In this study the relationship between sensory processing issues and EF was investigated. We expected sensory…

Atypical connectivity patterns have been observed for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), particularly across the triple-network model. The current study investigated brain-behavior relationships in the context of social skills and executive function profiles for ASD youth. We calculated connectivity measures from diffusion tensor…

Prefrontal synthesis (PFS) is a component of constructive imagination. It is defined as the process of mentally juxtaposing objects into novel combinations. For example, to comprehend the instruction "put the cat under the dog and above the monkey," it is necessary to use PFS in order to correctly determine the spatial arrangement of the…

The critical role of executive functioning in autism as well as the co-occurring mental health challenges common among autistic youth support to the immense value of interventions targeting executive functioning for enhancing mental health services for autistic children. The goal of the present study was to conduct a randomized feasibility trial…

This study aimed to explore the potential mediating role of sleep quality in the effect of physical activity (PA) intervention for improving executive functions (EFs) in children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Participants aged 6 to 12 years old with a formal ADHD diagnosis were recruited from a local hospital. A total of 80…

Purpose: Relative clauses present a well-known processing asymmetry between object-extracted and subject-extracted dependencies across both typical and atypical populations. The present study aimed at exploring the comprehension of object and subject relative clauses as conceptualized by the Relativized Minimality framework in autistic children…

The COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated depression, anxiety, and executive function (EF) difficulties in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). EF skills have been positively associated with mental health outcomes. Here, we probed the psychosocial impacts of pandemic responses in children with and without ASD by relating pre-pandemic EF…

The present study aimed to examine whether Mandarin-speaking children on the autism spectrum showed differences in comprehending spatial demonstratives ("this" and "that", and "here" and "there"), as compared to typically developing (TD) children. Another aim of this study was to investigate the roles of…

The "Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills" (PEERS®) is an intervention targeting social skills for autistic adolescents and those with other social challenges. The efficacy of the PEERS® on adolescents has been extensively explored but the program has not been validated in Italy. In the present study, we adapted…

Recent research suggests there may be differences in the social presentations of autistic males and females. Camouflaging is believed to account for some of these differences and executive function (EF) may support compensatory social behaviors. As few studies have explored the role of sex and everyday EF when evaluating specific social…

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and behaviors or interests. Besides behavioral, psychopharmacological and biomedical interventions there is increasing evidence of non-invasive treatments like neurofeedback (NFB) that can improve brain…

Executive functioning (EF) deficits, such as challenges with planning, organization, and materials management, negatively impact academic performance, particularly for middle-school students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without intellectual disability (ID). The aim was to assess the initial efficacy of the school-based version of the…

Many children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have challenges in reading comprehension, especially when implicit information in narrative texts is involved. Three interrelated factors influencing reading comprehension have been proposed to explain these challenges: Theory of Mind -- ToM; executive functions -- EF; and central coherence -- CC.…

This study examines relationships between mathematical problem-solving performance (in terms of strategies used and accuracy) and the main cognitive domains associated with mathematical learning (i.e. executive functions, verbal comprehension and social perception) of children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD and non-ASD resp.). The…