Aggression is a clinically significant problem for many children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, there have been few large-scale studies addressing this issue. The current study examined the prevalence and correlates of physical aggression in a sample of 1584 children and adolescents with ASD enrolled in the Autism…

This study was aimed to investigate the rate of co-occurring sensory processing (SP) dysfunction in children with autism who had a difficult temperament characteristics, and the relationship between SP dysfunction and temperament characteristics in preschool children with autism. A total of 111 children aged 48-84 months, 67 children with autism…

Despite of the great efforts that move forward to clarify the pathophysiologic mechanisms in autism, the cause of this disorder, however, remains largely unknown. There is an increasing body of literature concerning neurochemical contributions to the pathophysiology of autism. We aimed to determine blood and brain levels of glutamate in children…

It has been recently shown that dysregulation of transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1), IL-23 and IL-17 has been identified as a major factor involved in autoimmune disorders. Based on the increasing evidence of immune dysfunction in autism the aim of this study was to measure serum levels of TGF-beta1, IL-23 and IL-17 in relation to the…

We aimed to investigate the Health Related Quality of Life and related clinical variables (HRQoL) of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). We included 102 children with ASD (46 with autism, 38 with pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and 18 with Asperger's syndrome (AS)) and 39 typically developing children…

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…

The current study investigated social behaviors, including initiating joint attention (IJA), responding to joint attention (RJA), social orienting, and imitation in 14 children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared to 12 typically developing children (TD). Results indicated that IJA and RJA were positively correlated with social…

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…

To determine whether dietary patterns (juice and sweetened non-dairy beverages, fruits, vegetables, fruits and vegetables, snack foods, and kid's meals) and associations between dietary patterns and body mass index (BMI) differed between 53 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and 58 typically developing children, ages 3-11, multivariate…

A literature review completed by Bauer and Blunden (2008) determined that compared to objective measures, subjective assessments of sleep for typically developing children (e.g., parental reports) were of limited utility. No comparable literature review has been undertaken to determine whether subjective measures are appropriate for assessing…

This study examines the motor skills and executive functioning (EF) of 28 children diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS; mean age: 10 years 6 months, range: 7-12 years; 19 boys, 9 girls) in comparison with age- and gender-matched typically developing children. The potential relationship between motor…

Several brain regions show structural and functional abnormalities in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but the developmental trajectory of abnormalities in these structures and how they may relate to social and communicative impairments are still unclear. We assessed the effects of age on cortical thickness in individuals with…

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 current study investigated the relations among parent-child joint engagement, dyadic interactive behaviors, and children's subsequent social competence with peers. Participants were 40 children (20 children with autism, and 20 developmentally-matched typical children) between the ages of 2.75 and 6.5 years. Observational coding was conducted…