Reduced social attention is characteristic of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It has been suggested to result from an early onset and excessive influence of circumscribed interests (CIs) on gaze behaviour, compared to typically developing (TYP) individuals. To date, these findings have been mixed. The current eye-tracking study utilised a visual…

Statistical learning-extracting regularities in the environment-may underlie complex social behavior. 124 children, 56 with autism and 68 typically developing, ages 2-8 years, completed a novel visual statistical learning task on an iPad. Averaged together, children with autism demonstrated less learning on the task compared to typically…

Many researchers have suggested that temperament information could be useful for understanding the behavioral variability within the autism spectrum. The purpose of this brief report is to examine temperament profiles of 110 children with ASD (ages 3-8 years, 61 with Autistic Disorder, 42 with PDD-NOS; and 7 with Asperger Disorder) via a commonly…

A study of 22 children with autism and 19 children with mental retardation found that, when prompted, school-age and adolescent subjects with autism did not differ from children with mental retardation in production of functional play acts and situationally appropriate object substitution, but did produce fewer novel pretend play acts. (CR)

The functional play of children with autism (n=15) was compared to that of developmentally matched children with Down syndrome (n=15) and typical infants (n=15). The functional play of the children with autism was less elaborated, less varied, and less integrated than that of the controls. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)