L-Carnitine was proposed as a potential treatment for patients diagnosed with autism to ameliorate the behavioral symptoms associated with the disease. Thirty children diagnosed with autism were randomly assigned to receive (100 mg/kg bodyweight/day) of liquid L-carnitine (n = 16) or placebo (n = 14) for 6 months. Measurements included changes in…

Although it is well known that families of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at risk for increased stress and other problems, little is known about what child characteristics may mediate that risk. To address the impact of child behavior problems on family health, we examined data collected from 136 families raising children with…

Although intense fears have been reported in up to 64% of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), little is known about the phenomenology of fear in this population. This study assessed the relationship between fear and core symptoms of autism in children with an ASD. In Phase I of this study, parents of 41 children with an ASD completed…

This study reports on the relationship between motor stereotypies and impairments in executive functions (EF) in children with Autistic Disorder (AD) and in children with Developmental Language Disorders (DLD). We hypothesized that low EF performance would predict higher frequency and longer durations of stereotypies in the AD group only.…

The present study examined relations among sleep, routines, and externalizing behavior (based on parent report) in 115 children ages 6 to 12 years in two groups: 58 children with an autism spectrum disorder (age M = 9.0, SD = 2.09) and 57 non-ASD children (age M = 8.25, SD = 1.98). Within the ASD group, sleep hygiene and sleep quality were related…

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are often associated with aberrant responses to sensory stimuli, which are thought to contribute to the social, communication, and repetitive behavior deficits that define ASD. However, there are few studies that separate aberrant sensory responses by individual sensory modality to assess modality-specific…

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) have higher rates of depressive symptoms than parents of typically developing (TD) children or parents of children with other developmental disorders. The purpose of this study was to examine child and parent sleep as factors associated with depressive symptoms in parents of children with…

Two children with autism who engaged in aggression and stereotypy were assessed using common analogue functional analysis procedures. Aggression was maintained by access to specific preferred items. Data on the rates of stereotypy and appropriate play were collected during an extended functional analysis tangible condition. These data reveal that…

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are at high risk for co-occurring psychiatric disorders. Previous research has suggested that restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRB) are associated with symptoms of co-occurring psychiatric disorders in individuals with ASD, but this relationship is not well understood. The current study…

Multiple sleep problems have been reported in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The association of poor sleep with problematic daytime behaviors has been shown in small studies of younger children. We assessed the relationship between sleep and behavior in 1784 children, ages 2-18, with confirmed diagnosis of ASD participating in the…

There is very little known about how sibling characteristics may influence the social functioning of a child with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current study utilized data from the Simons Simplex Collection (SSC; n=1355 children with ASD and 1351 siblings) to investigate this relationship. Phenotypic measures included (a) the "Autism…

Two experiments were conducted to examine (a) the relationship between the structural characteristics (i.e., bout duration, inter-response time [IRT], pitch, and energy) and overall duration of vocal stereotypy, and (b) the effects of auditory stimulation on the duration and temporal structure of the behavior. In the first experiment, we measured…

This study aimed to investigate the sensory processing (SP) dysfunction and emotional and behavioral problems in preschool children with autism and then examine the relationship between the SP dysfunction and emotional and behavioral problems. The parents of 112 children aged 48-84 months (67 with autism; 45 age-matched typically developing)…

Maternal ratings of explosiveness, opposition, and aggression were analyzed in 1609 children 6-16 years of age. Behavior problems were common in autism, ADHD-Combined type, and depression, whereas children with ADHD-Inattentive type, anxiety disorder, and acquired brain injury did not differ from typical controls. More than 40% of children with…

The effectiveness of behavioural intervention programs for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders was addressed by a meta-analysis, which reviewed 14 studies. The findings suggest that the behavioural programs are effective in improving several developmental aspects in the children, in terms of their treatment gains, and also relative to…