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…

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…

Identification of problems with socioemotional functioning is an important task in early childhood, particularly for children in early intervention (EI). However, socioemotional concerns raised by families may be under-identified in practice. In accordance with Division for Early Childhood (DEC) recommended practices, Part C providers could…

Purpose: There is a relationship between motor and language skills in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but little work addresses the ramifications of this relationship for professionals who teach motor skills to this population. Within a motor skills intervention, this study probed the importance of language skills for motor…

Atypical motor development has frequently been reported in infants at elevated likelihood for autism spectrum disorder. However, no previous study has used detailed motion capture technology to compare infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder and infant siblings with no familial history of autism spectrum disorder. We investigated…

Social development is one of the most critical developmental areas for human beings. Deficits in social skills may negatively impact several essential domains including academic achievement, interpersonal relationships, behavior, mental health, and adult life outcome. Individuals with autism present with core deficits in social skills. Without…

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…

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…

This Special Issue on linguistic and cognitive development in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) arose from the 42nd Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD) (2017), when Jeannette Schaeffer, Stephanie Durrleman, and Inge-Marie Eigsti organized a symposium on this topic. It shows that the study of language development…

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…

Vocabulary checklists completed by caregivers are a common way of measuring children's vocabulary knowledge. We provide evidence from checklist data from 31 children with and without autism spectrum disorder. When asked to report twice about whether or not their child produces a particular word, caregivers are largely consistent in their…

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder whose symptoms may involve deficits across three domains: communication, socialization and atypical behaviors or interests. With a high prevalence across populations and a tendency to impact males more than females, early and accurate diagnosis appears critical. The most…

This prospective study examined the developmental changes over time of adolescents diagnosed in toddlerhood with autism spectrum disorder and searched for child characteristics at toddlerhood that predict outcome at adolescence. The study included 65 participants who were divided into low cognitive (developmental quotient [less than] 85; N = 41)…

Although neurotypical children often spend the majority of their time engaged in play activities, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can present with substantial delays in the development of play skills, requiring intensive intervention. Although targets for language and basic learning skills are often selected based on the development…

Cross-sectional research has demonstrated the overrepresentation of gender dysphoria in children and adults with autism spectrum disorder. However, the predictors and underlying mechanisms of this co-occurrence remain unclear. This follow-up study aimed to explore baseline (childhood/adolescence) predictors for the follow-up (adulthood)…