Emotion knowledge has not been explored in children with cerebral palsy (CP). To evaluate differences in emotion knowledge between children with CP and their typically developing peers (TDP), and explore its associations with affective regulation and behavioral psychopathology. 36 Children with CP and 45 TDP completed the Emotion Matching Task…

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and/or intellectual and developmental disabilities (DD) often struggle with behavior management and emotion-regulation (ER). In this manuscript, we describe the results of a chart review examining a group treatment program designed to address ER deficits in youth with ASD and/or DD. The intensive…

Sensory-based intervention is a common approach used to address behavioral problems in children. Types of sensory-based intervention for children and details of the intervention effectiveness have not been systematically examined. This review examined the effectiveness and ideal types of sensory-based interventions for children with behavioral…

Children with autism use hand taking and hand leading gestures to interact with others. This is traditionally considered to be an example of atypical behaviour illustrating the lack of intersubjective understanding in autism. However the assumption that these gestures are atypical is based upon scarce empirical evidence. In this paper I present…

Symptoms of autism are frequent in males with fragile X syndrome (FXS), but it is not clear whether symptom profiles differ from those of nonsyndromic ASD. Using individual item scores from the Autism Diagnostic Inventory-Revised, we examined which current symptoms of autism differed in boys with FXS relative to same-aged boys diagnosed with…

The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of task organization, a component of Structured Teaching developed by Division TEACCH, on the independent play of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). On-task behavior, task accuracy, task performance and teacher prompting were measured across independent play sessions in the classroom.…

We evaluated outcomes for 31 children with autism (2-6 years of age at intake) who received behavioral intervention in mainstream pre-school settings and a comparison group of 12 children receiving treatment as usual. After 2 years, children receiving behavioral intervention had higher IQ scores (Hedges g = 1.03 (95% CI = 0.34, 1.72) and adaptive…

In this study, the Double ABCX model of family adaptation was used to explore the impact of severity of autism symptoms, behavior problems, social support, religious coping, and reframing, on outcomes related to family functioning and parental distress. The sample included self-report measures collected from 195 families raising school-age…

We examined to what extent increased parent reports of autistic traits in some children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are the result of ADHD-related symptoms or qualitatively similar to the core characteristics of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Results confirm the presence of a subgroup of children with ADHD and elevated…

We investigated whether deficits in social gaze and affect and in joint attention behaviors are evident within the first year of life among siblings of children with autism who go on to be diagnosed with autism or ASD (ASD) and siblings who are non-diagnosed (NoASD-sib) compared to low-risk controls. The ASD group did not differ from the other two…

Children with autism are frequently observed to experience difficulties in sensory processing. This study examined specific patterns of sensory processing in 54 children with autistic disorder and their association with adaptive behavior. Model-based cluster analysis revealed three distinct sensory processing subtypes in autism. These subtypes…

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) often demonstrate impaired generativity that is thought to mediate repetitive behaviors in autism (Turner in J Child Psychol Psychiatry, 40(6):839-849, 1999a). The present study evaluated generativity in children with and without ASD via the use-of-objects task (Turner in J Child Psychol Psychiatry,…

Studies on the distinction between Autistic Disorder (AD) and Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) have been inconclusive. This study examined the validity of PDD-NOS by comparing it to AD and other developmental disorders (DD) on parent-reported behavior problems. Fifty-four children with PDD-NOS were individually…

The pilot investigation evaluated a theatrical intervention program, Social Emotional NeuroScience Endocrinology (SENSE) Theatre, designed to improve socioemotional functioning and reduce stress in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Eight children with ASD were paired with typically developing peers that served as expert models.…

Children with autism often exhibit low levels of social engagement, decreased levels of eye contact, and low social affect. However, both the literature and our direct clinical observations suggest that some components of intervention procedures may result in improvement in child-initiated social areas. Using an ABAB research design with three…