Purpose: One promising early marker for autism and other communicative and language disorders is early infant speech production. Here we used daylong recordings of high- and low-risk infant-mother dyads to examine whether acoustic-prosodic alignment as well as two automated measures of infant vocalization are related to developmental risk status…

In an evaluation of Anglo and Latina mothers and their children at risk of autism, this study compared mother-reported child behavioral concerns to staff-observed symptoms of autism. Within Latina mothers, the impact of primary language (English/Spanish), mothers' education, and child age on ratings of developmental concerns was examined.…

Borrowing from a clinical psychology observational methodology, thin-slice observations were used to assess autism characteristics in toddlers. Thin-slices are short observations taken from a longer behavior stream which are assigned ratings by multiple raters using a 5-point scale. The raters' observations are averaged together to assign a…

Timely and appropriate care for children with autism spectrum conditions is affected by the interaction between healthcare professionals and parents. Despite the importance of the parent-professional partnership, there is a dearth of cultural-specific data on parent-professional partnership in the Chinese context. We conducted 10 in-depth…

We examined social attention and attention shifting during (a) a play interaction between 12-month olds and an examiner and (b) after the examiner pretended to hurt herself. We coded the target and duration of infants' visual fixations and frequency of attention shifts. Siblings of children with autism and controls with no family history of autism…

Background: Identification of possible personal indicators of risk for challenging behaviour has generally been through association in cross-sectional prevalence studies, but few analyses have controlled for intercorrelation between potential risk factors. The aim was to investigate the extent to which gender, age, presence of the triad of…

This study assessed parents' first concerns about their autistic child. This information was categorized so that it could help healthcare professionals improve early detection of autism. We designed a questionnaire using an open-ended format, and 459 questionnaires were completed by parents to assess difficulties encountered in obtaining a…

Current clinical diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) occurs between 3 and 4 years of age, but increasing evidence indicates that intervention begun earlier may improve outcomes. Using secondary analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data set, the current study identifies early predictors prior to the diagnosis of…

Current clinical diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) occurs between 3 and 4 years of age, but increasing evidence indicates that intervention begun earlier may improve outcomes. Using secondary analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data set, the current study identifies early predictors prior to the diagnosis of…

This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ). We assessed 736 participants (male, 80.1%) aged 2-18, who were clinically diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) including autistic disorder, Asperger's disorder, or pervasive developmental disorders, not…

Pervasive developmental disorders are characterised by the presence of abnormalities in social interaction and communication as well as repetitive patterns of behaviours. Although early symptoms of the disorder often appear during the first two years of life, its diagnosis is often delayed. The purpose of this study is to analyse the delay between…

Few studies assess psychiatric disorders in representative samples of individuals with autism and ID. Symptoms of autism and psychiatric disorders have been confounded. PAC, a conceptually analysed and validated screening instrument, was used. Aims: Assess prevalence of psychiatric disorders in individuals with intellectual disability only…

This study investigated whether the Communication Checklist-Adult (CC-A) could identify subtypes of social and communication dysfunction in autism probands and their parents. The CC-A is divided into subscales measuring linguistic ability as well as two aspects of social communication: the Pragmatic Skills subscale assesses the level of pragmatic…

The diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in older children with intellectual disabilities (IDs) is challenging because of overlap in symptomatology and the high comorbidity of these disorders. On the basis of a sample of 89 older children with IDs (aged 6-15 years) referred to an ASD clinic, semistructured parent interviews were used to…

This qualitative study examines perspectives of parents of children with autism related to engagement in the home environment. Increased engagement decreases the likelihood of less productive behaviors. Investigation of engagement in the home setting may provide insights into the development of interventions. Collaboration between parents and…