Eye gaze is widely recognised as an important element in managing social interactions, receiving information from others and communicating information about ourselves. Atypical eye gaze is one of the characteristic hallmarks of autism. Experimental research has contributed significantly to our knowledge of eye-gaze in autism, however, there is a…

Autistic people often experience difficulties navigating face-to-face social interactions. Historically, the empirical literature has characterised these difficulties as cognitive 'deficits' in social information processing. However, the empirical basis for such claims is lacking, with most studies failing to capture the complexity of social…

Most internationally recognized instruments for the screening and diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder have been developed in the USA, which calls into question the degree of their cultural adaptation to diverse populations. The aim of this study is to examine the characteristics of social communication in typically developing Croatian-speaking…

This study centres on the experiences of autistic librarians in academic library workplaces, delving into how they become information literate--an intricate process influenced by social, epistemic, and physical modalities. Through a qualitative approach combining survey responses from 43 participants and detailed interviews with two autistic…

Keeping a conversation going is the social glue of friendships. The DSM criteria for autism list difficulties with back-and-forth conversation but does not necessitate that all autistic children will be equally impacted. We carried out three studies (two pre-registered) with verbally fluent school children (age 5-9 years) to investigate how…

The present study explored strategies teachers use to help people with ASD develop sociosexual skills for empathy expression. Previous research found the curriculum for people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) does not always include strategies to teach the socio-sexual skills required for empathy expression. This qualitative descriptive study…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a peer mediated intervention to increase social communication acts of preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Utilizing a single-subject A-B design across four peer dyads, I examined the overall effectiveness of the intervention in relation to specific nonverbal,…

Purpose: Toddlers with Down syndrome (DS) showcase comparable or higher rates of gestures than chronological age-- and language-matched toddlers without DS. Little is known about how gesture use in toddlers with DS relates to multiple domains of development, including motor, pragmatics, language, and visual reception (VR) skills. Unexplored is…

Nonverbal turn taking, defined as back-and-forth exchanges, may be used to convey instrumental or social intent. It has been theorized that social turn taking is foundational to joint attention and, as such, it has been incorporated as a component of early interventions for children with autism, who often have challenges in joint attention…

Background and aims: Prior work has examined how children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder who are minimally verbal use their spoken language abilities during interactions with others. However, social communication includes other aspects beyond speech. To our knowledge, no studies have examined how minimally verbal children and…

Nonverbal turn taking, defined as back-and-forth exchanges, may be used to convey instrumental or social intent. It has been theorized that social turn taking is foundational to joint attention and, as such, it has been incorporated as a component of early interventions for children with autism, who often have challenges in joint attention…

Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are one of the fastest growing groups at the community college, and supporting faculty members who teach students with ASD is a challenge for college leaders. Faculty members need a knowledge base about these students as well as the pedagogical practices that lead to their success. There have been no…

Difficulties in communication during social interactions are a feature of the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Little is known about the communication abilities of minimally-verbal (MV) individuals, which comprises one-third of autistic individuals. Natural language sampling (NLS) provides an optimal approach to capture communication…

Preverbal communication means any social behavior that occurs before children communicate verbally. Generally, these communicative behaviors are categorized into two ways: as behavior regulation (BR) or joint attention (JA) skills. BR, also referred to as requesting, involves the use of behaviors to gain something or receive assistance (Mundy et…

Purpose: Videogaming offers an interactive, enjoyable, and socially valid context for interaction between autistic and non-autistic students in schools. In this tutorial, I describe an approach that supports communication and peer interaction through group-based videogaming. This approach creates an opportunity for autistic and non-autistic…