This study investigated neurodevelopmental changes in sound processing by recording mismatch negativity (MMN) in response to various degrees of sound complexity in 18 mildly to moderately autistic versus 15 healthy boys aged between 6 and 15 years. Autistic boys presented with lower IQ and poor performance on a range of executive and social…

Past research has focused on pretend play in infants with autism because it is considered an early manifestation of symbolic or imaginative thinking. Contradictory research findings have challenged the meta-representational model. The intent of this paper is to propose that pretend play is the behavioral manifestation of developing imaginative…

Childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD) is a rare condition characterized by distinct regression of developmental and behavioral functioning following a period of apparently normal development for at least 2 years. The purpose of this article is to present the developmental, behavioral, psychosocial, and medical histories of eight children who…

The present study investigated differences among children with three different patterns of autism symptom onset: regression, plateau, and no loss and no plateau. Cross-sectional data were collected from parents of children aged 3-17 years with an autism spectrum disorder (n = 2,720) who were recruited through a US-based online research database.…

The subject of the present study is the development of a girl with the preserved speech variant of Rett disorder. Our data are based on detailed retrospective and prospective video analyses. Despite achieving developmental milestones, movement quality was already abnormal during the girl's first half year of life. In addition, early hand…

This longitudinal study assessed multidisciplinary data on 219 children with autistic spectrum disorders from the median age of 5 (Time 1) to 8 years old (Time 2). The evolution of psychological and adaptive data was subjected to cluster analysis. Four clinically meaningful clusters emerged. The first group (21%) demonstrated the most important…

We report rates of regression and associated findings in a population derived group of 255 children aged 9-14 years, participating in a prevalence study of autism spectrum disorders (ASD); 53 with narrowly defined autism, 105 with broader ASD and 97 with non-ASD neurodevelopmental problems, drawn from those with special educational needs within a…

This study of 102 individuals with autism found that the brainstem and cerebellum increased in size with age but were significantly smaller in autistic patients than in controls. Analysis of the speed of development suggests that brainstem and vermian abnormalities in autism were due to an early insult and hypoplasia rather than to progressive…

This study of the drawings produced by 34 autistic and 33 normal children (age 68-211 months) at the same developmental level found no intergroup differences on fragmentation of geometric design drawings, but significant differences in geometric design overlap and human figure overlap and fragmentation. (JDD)

Twenty-three autistic children (age 4-19) and 23 mental age-matched controls completed a task of sustained attention. Results suggest that autistic children's difficulties in sustaining attention may be attributable to developmental delay and motivational contingencies of task rather than to a primary impairment in ability to sustain attention.…

In a study by Toshiaki Hashimoto and colleagues (EC 611 142), 10 infants with developmental delay, poor eye contact, and poor facial expression underwent magnetic resonance brain imaging and were later diagnosed with autism. This offered direct evidence of abnormality of the cerebellar vermis and the brainstem at the beginning stages of behavioral…

Examined the use of protoimperative and protodeclarative pointing gestures in three children with autism (ages 26 to 53 months) at 5-month intervals over two years. Imperative or instrumental functions emerged early in all three; declarative or experience sharing functions emerged later in two subjects and not at all in the third. (DB)

This study assessed the relationship between parent/teacher ratings of hyperactivity and developmental indices in psychiatric clinic children (ages 5-16). Findings suggest that chronological age should be considered when behavior ratings are used to assess cognitively delayed children for hyperactivity but do not support use of mental age in…

Two studies, 1 longitudinal with 29 subjects and 1 cross-sectional with 132 subjects, examined the adaptive trajectories and profiles of males with mental retardation caused by fragile X syndrome. Significant age-related gains were found in boys ages 1-10 but subjects ages 11-20 showed nonsignificant relations between age and adaptive skills. (DB)

This case study provides early developmental data about a child later diagnosed as autistic. The report describes results of serial ultrasounds performed during the pregnancy, the complication of maternal diabetes, family history, high maternal stress levels, avoidance behaviors of the infant, and developmental delays exhibited especially in…