Mother-child emotion-related conversations, as a practice of parental socialization of emotion, can help children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) develop socio-emotional skills. This study intends to explore relationships between mother-child conversations about emotions and socio-emotional skills of children with ASD by accounting for the…

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder marked by socio-emotional deficits, and difficulties with pretend play skills. Play skills are related to processes of adaptive functioning and emotion understanding. The present pilot study implemented an in-person pretend play intervention to school-aged children (ages 6 to 9 years,…

To promote health care transition services (HCTS) among youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it is important to understand their access to HCTS and the association with functioning. We conducted weighted descriptive statistics and regressions. Findings suggested that HCTS were inconsistently provided to youth with ASD. Access to two or more…

The Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) is a screening questionnaire for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Previous findings have confirmed the M-CHAT's sensitivity and specificity across several cultures, yet few studies have considered M-CHAT scores as a distributed trait in a sample of typical infants. The current study examined…

This study compares the lexical composition of 118 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aged 12 to 84 months with 4626 vocabulary-matched typically developing toddlers with and without language delay, aged 8 to 30 months. Children with ASD and late talkers showed a weaker noun bias. Additionally, differences were identified in the…

A new task ('CARER') was used to test claims of reduced empathy in autistic adults. CARER measures emotion identification (ability to identify another's affective state), affective empathy (degree to which another's affective state causes a matching state in the Empathiser) and affect sharing (degree to which the Empathiser's state matches the…

Background: Quality of life (QoL), social-emotional and occupational functioning are often diminished in young autistic adults. Measuring these constructs as vocational training outcomes may inform future programming and relevancy of measures. Methods: This pilot study analyzed changes in social-emotional functioning and QoL during the involvement…

Substantial research indicates that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have difficulties with Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities, but rarely have studies used a comprehensive battery to measure both the cognitive and affective aspects of ToM. The present study tested this ability in 24 Greek-speaking children with ASD (ages 7-14), and…

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder characterised by deficits in social interactions and communication, with stereotypical and repetitive behaviours. Recent evidence suggests that maternal immune dysregulation may predispose offspring to ASD. Independent samples t-tests revealed downregulation of IL-17A concentrations in…

This study is a randomized control trial aimed at testing the role of a human-assisted social robot as an intervention mediator in a socio-emotional understanding protocol for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Fourteen children (4-8 years old) were randomly assigned to 10 sessions of a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) intervention…

Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) combined with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptoms (ADHD + ASD) have poorer social and emotional functioning than those with ADHD alone. However, no studies have specifically examined the associations between ASD symptoms, measures of social and emotional functioning and limbic…

Although parent-assisted social skills interventions may reduce early social challenges in preschool-aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), limited research has explored whether intervention gains maintain several years after treatment. This study examined the durability of PEERS® for Preschoolers, a parent-mediated social skills…

Inconsistent findings regarding sex differences in cognition have been found in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study evaluated sex differences in cognitive-developmental functioning in a large clinical sample of young children diagnosed with ASD. The sample included children 18-68 months of age who received the Mullen Scales of…

Infants show shifting patterns of visual engagement to faces over the first years of life. To explore the adaptive implications of this engagement, we collected eye-tracking measures on cross-sectional samples of 10-25-month-old typically developing toddlers (TD;N = 28) and those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD;N = 54). Concurrent language…

Social engagement, pretend play, and concern for another's distress represent fundamental features of typical social-emotional development in the second year. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) display delays and deficits in these areas, and research on toddlers at heightened risk for ASD (HR; younger siblings of children with ASD)…