Objectives: Two studies were conducted to better understand how children with intellectual disabilities (ID) empathize with the feelings of others during social interactions. The first study tested hypotheses of developmental delay or difference regarding empathy in 79 children with ID by comparing them with typically developing (TD) children,…

The importance of supporting parent-child interactions has been noted in the context of prodromal autism, but little consideration has been given to the possible contributing role of parental characteristics, such as psychological distress. This cross-sectional study tested models in which parent-child interaction variables mediated relations…

Individuals with Sex Chromosome Trisomies (SCT; XXX, XXY, XYY) have an increased vulnerability for developing challenges in social adaptive functioning. The present study investigates social interaction behavior in the context of varying social load, and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) symptomatology in young children aged 1-7.5 years old, with SCT…

Deficits in social skills are common in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and there is an urgent need for effective social skills interventions, especially for improving interactions with typically developing peers. This study examined the effects of a naturalistic behavioral social skills intervention in improving social initiations…

The relationship between turn taking (i.e., back-and-forth preverbal communicative exchanges) and joint attention has not been studied in interactions between children with autism and caregivers. In joint attention, a form of preverbal social communication, young children socially share attention with a partner about objects, a competency that is…

Social communication deficits are one of the two core characteristics demonstrated by individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and require explicit instruction as soon as the deficit is discovered. The present investigation examined the use of video-enhanced activity schedules using tablet technology for teaching social interaction to…

This RCT study examined efficacy of a preschool peer social intervention (PPSI) in facilitating social engagement of preschoolers with high-functioning ASD (HFASD; N = 65). HFASD participants were randomly assigned by preschool to a 6-month intervention (play, interaction, or conversation) or a waitlisted-treatment-as-usual control group. Trained…

Young adults with ASD experience difficulties with social skills, empathy, loneliness, and social anxiety. One intervention, "PEERS® for Young Adults," shows promise in addressing these challenges. The present study replicated and extended the original study by recruiting a larger sample (N = 56), employing a gold standard ASD assessment…

Despite consistent and substantive research documenting a large male to female ratio in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), only a modest body of research exists examining sex differences in characteristics. This study examined sex differences in developmental functioning and early social communication in children with ASD as compared to children with…

Two studies investigated whether typically developing children (TD) and children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) were able to decide whether two characters were communicating or not on the basis of point-light displays. Point-lights portrayed actors engaged or not in a social interaction. In study 1, TD children (4-10 years old; n = 36)…

In a report of the effectiveness of MEHRIT, a social-interaction-based intervention for autism, Casenhiser et al. ("Autism" 17(2):220-241, 2013) failed to find a significant advantage for language development in the treatment group using standardized language assessments. We present the results from a re-analysis of their results to…

Students with ASD are often taught in individual instructional arrangements, even when they receive educational services in inclusive settings. Providing intervention in small group arrangements may increase opportunities for social interactions, particularly when these opportunities are systematically planned. In this study, academic instruction…

Both high-functioning autism (HFA) and social phobia (SP) involve profound social interaction deficits. Although these disorders share some similar symptoms, they are conceptualized as distinct. Because both HFA and SP are defined behaviorally, the degree of overlap between the two disorders may result in misinterpretation of symptoms. However,…

Designing effective treatments for improving early social behaviors in autism has been identified as a critical research need. One barrier to drawing conclusions about optimal treatments for children with autism is the use of highly varied dependent measures in the treatment literature. Contributing to this is the absence of "gold standard"…

The impact of bilingual exposure on language learning has not been systematically studied in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. This study compared the social abilities and language levels of children (mean age = 56 months) with ASDs from bilingual (n = 45) and monolingual (n = 30) environments. Bilingually-exposed children were subgrouped…