Societal expectations for social-emotional behavior differ across sexes; however, diagnostic definitions of autism do not account for this when delineating "typical" versus "atypical." This study examines sex differences in autism in one behavior associated with strong gender biases: smiling. Computer vision was used to…

Emerging research suggests that episodic memory challenges are commonly encountered by autistic individuals; however, the specific nature of these memory challenges remains elusive. Here, we address critical gaps in the literature by examining pattern separation memory, the ability to store distinct memories of similar stimuli, and its links to…

Purpose: Despite the clinical utility of sentence production and sentence repetition to identify language impairment in autism, little is known about the extent to which these tasks are sensitive to potential language variation. One promising method is strategic scoring, which has good clinical utility for identifying language impairment in…

Examination of emotional intelligence (EI) of autistic individuals has gained popularity. These efforts have included the BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory, Youth Version (BarOn EQ-i YV); however, this measure was not standardized with this population and so its utility and the accuracy of its factor structure for this population is questionable.…

Many autistic people and people with non-spectrum neurodevelopmental disabilities (e.g. intellectual disability) report feeling lonely, which can negatively impact their well-being. There is little longitudinal research, however, tracking changes in how autistic people experience, conceptualize, and cope with loneliness throughout their lives. A…

The current study examined whether social competence and autistic traits are related to anxiety and depression in autistic and non-autistic children. Parents of 340 children aged 6 to 12 years old, including 186 autistic and 154 non-autistic children completed the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) to assess their child's autistic traits, the…

Emerging research suggests overrepresentation of gender diversity among autistic youth. Previous gender diversity research with autistic children has relied on parent-report based on a single question. The "Gender Diversity Screening Questionnaire--Self-Report and Parent-Report" assessed gender diversity experiences from 244 children…

Some studies suggest that individuals with autism spectrum disorder have reduced emotional empathy while others do not. The presence of co-occurring alexithymia in autism spectrum disorder and differences in interoception have been associated with reductions in empathic ability. To fully explore the relationships between interoception,…

Background and aims: Children and young people on the autism spectrum frequently report a range of negative educational experiences and face disproportionally high rates of school non-attendance, including school avoidance and permanent exclusion, which can have a significant impact on their well-being as well as educational and broader life…

Multi-sensory environments are widely used with autistic children. However, there are no data on how autistic children choose to spend time in the room and how this relates to their sensory, behavioural and intellectual profiles. We observed the frequency and duration of visits to multi-sensory environment equipment of 41 autistic children during…

Depression is common among autistic youth and is associated with worse quality of life in this group. Despite significant need for high-quality efficacious treatments, there has been very limited research on interventions for depression in autistic youth. This single-arm pilot study examined the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a novel,…

A recent study suggests that parent report on the Social Symptom and Prosocial scales of the Childhood Joint Attention Rating Scale provides useful information about differences in the social development of school-aged autistic children. The current study provides additional psychometric data on the Childhood Joint Attention Rating Scale regarding…

Research suggests a relationship between anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum disorder. The aim of the current study was to examine social attention in anorexia nervosa and autism spectrum disorder compared with age- and sex-matched typically developing groups, and to examine whether lowered social motivation could explain reductions in social…

Autistic individuals are at significantly higher risk of suicide than non-autistic individuals, with transition-aged youth at potentially the highest risk. While lower executive function (EF) skills have been significantly associated with suicide risk in other clinical samples, the link between EF and suicidality has not yet been examined for…

This study examined whether set-shifting ability for children with autism spectrum disorder without intellectual disability would be affected differentially by verbal or nonverbal feedback as the outcome of previous research tentatively suggests that verbal feedback may lead to slower set-shifting. Overall, 56 children participated (42 male; 14…