Autism is often associated with early developmental delays in language and motor skills. However, little is known about the complex dynamic processes that drive the co-development of such early difficulties. The aim of the present study was to model the parallel growth of language and motor skills in a cohort of infants and to explore differences…

Autistic people have difficulties recalling episodic memories, including retrieving fewer or less specific and detailed memories compared to typically developing people. However, the ability to effectively recall episodic memories is crucial in many real-world contexts, such as the criminal justice system, medical consultations, and employment…

Studies of language development in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have been primarily focused on the influence of child-based factors such as autism traits, IQ, and initial language skills. Yet the findings of these studies are inconclusive. There has, moreover, been little research compared the relative influences of child-based…

Trajectories of expressive language development are highly heterogeneous in autism. Yoder et al. found that parental responsiveness, child response to joint attention, child communicative intent and consonant inventory were unique predictors of expressive language growth in minimally verbal preschoolers 16 months later (n = 87). This study applied…

Contemporary parent-implemented early intervention programs for children with autism spectrum disorder usually incorporate a range of techniques with different theoretical underpinnings. While research suggests that parents often learn to implement interventions with an acceptable degree of overall fidelity, there is limited research into parent…

Previous word learning studies suggest that children with autism spectrum disorder may have difficulty understanding pictorial symbols. Here we investigate the ability of children with autism spectrum disorder and language-matched typically developing children to contextualize symbolic information communicated by pictures in a search task that did…

The psychosocial outcomes of individuals with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD) appear to be diverse and are often poor relative to their intellectual or language level. To identify predictive variables that are potentially ameliorable by therapeutic intervention, this study investigated self-reported psychosocial quality of life…

There is uncertainty about the proportion of children with autism spectrum disorders who do not develop phrase speech during the preschool years. The main purpose of this study was to examine this ratio in a population-based community sample of children. The cohort consisted of 165 children (141 boys, 24 girls) with autism spectrum disorders aged…

The study focuses on language and cognitive abilities of siblings of the linguistically most affected children with autism (i.e. siblings of nonverbal children--SIBS-ANV). Twenty-eight SIBS-ANV (17 boys), ages 4-9 years, took part in the study. All children attended regular schools, and none had received a diagnosis of autism. Controls were 27…

Prospective questionnaire data from a longitudinal population sample on children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), developmental delay, specific language impairment, or typical development (TD), were collected at ages eight, 12 and 24 months, via the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scale Developmental Profile (CSBS)--Infant Toddler…

This study observed expressive communication of 17 Australian and 15 Taiwanese children with autism who were mute or had limited spoken language during 2 hour regular school routines and analyzed teacher instructions associated with elicited expressive communication. Results indicated: (a) the frequency of occurrence of elicited expressive…

This study examined progress after 1 year of treatment for children with autism who received a mean of 36 hours per week one-to-one University of California at Los Angeles Applied Behavior Analysis (UCLA ABA) treatment. Two types of service provision were compared: an intensive clinic based treatment model with all treatment personnel (N = 23),…

The age of detection of autism varies and may be linked to differences in the severity of disturbance and any associated retardation. Symptom intensity, overall language level, age of recognition of first disturbances and level of psychological development were examined in 222 children with pervasive developmental disorder with a mean age of 5…

This study aimed to investigate the relationships between abilities to initiate and respond to joint attention and symptoms of autism that have, and have not, been theoretically linked to joint attention. Participants were 51 boys and five girls with autistic disorder, aged between 2 years and 6 years 5 months. Measures of joint attention…