The effect of psychological treatment on social functioning, quality of life and autism traits in autistic people with suicidal behaviour remains largely unknown. At six Dutch mental health centres, 123 adult outpatients with "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (5th edition) diagnosed autism spectrum condition and…

Depression is common among autistic youth and is associated with worse quality of life in this group. Despite significant need for high-quality efficacious treatments, there has been very limited research on interventions for depression in autistic youth. This single-arm pilot study examined the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a novel,…

This triple-arm, double-blind, randomized clinical trial investigated the effect of multisession prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on social functioning in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A total of 105 individuals (age 14-21 years) diagnosed with ASD were randomized into the active-tDCS, sham-tDCS, and…

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy is an empirically based, behavioral parent training program for young children exhibiting disruptive behaviors. Parent--Child Interaction Therapy shows promise for treating disruptive behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder. Treatment processes (i.e. treatment length and homework compliance), parenting…

Although social impairments are considered the hallmark deficit of autism, many behavioral intervention studies rely on cognitive functioning as a primary outcome. Fewer studies have examined whether changes in cognition are associated with changes in social functioning. This study examined whether cognitive gains among 192 students from 47…

Video modeling using applied behavior analysis techniques is one of the most promising and cost-effective ways to improve social skills for parents with autism spectrum disorder children. The main objectives were: (1) To elaborate/describe videos to improve eye contact and joint attention, and to decrease disruptive behaviors of autism spectrum…

This study evaluates an intervention targeting social-communication and play skills (Advancing Social-communication And Play; ASAP) implemented by school staff in a public preschool setting. With increases in enrollment of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in school systems, establishing the effectiveness and feasibility of…

This study aims to evaluate the long-term outcome of Children's Friendship Training, a parent-assisted social skills intervention for children. Prior research has shown Children's Friendship Training to be superior to wait-list control with maintenance of gains at 3-month follow-up. Participants were families of children diagnosed with autism…

In this review, we focus on research that has used technology to provide cognitive training--i.e. to improve performance on some measurable aspect of behaviour--in individuals with autism spectrum disorders. We review technology-enhanced interventions that target three different cognitive domains: (a) emotion and face recognition, (b) language and…

Many students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have delays learning to recognize emotions. Social behavior is also challenging, including initiating interactions, responding to others, developing peer relationships, and so forth. In this single case design study we investigated the relationship between use of computer software ("Mind Reading:…

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),…