Interest in telehealth assessment for autism has increased due to COVID-19 and subsequent expansion of remote psychological services, though options that are easy for clinicians to adopt and available through the lifespan are limited. The Brief Observation of Symptoms of Autism (BOSA) provides a social context with standardized materials and…

Few measures are appropriate to assess autism symptoms in minimally verbal adolescents and adults. The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd Edition (ADOS-2, Lord et al., in Autism diagnostic observation schedule--2nd edition (ADOS-2). Western Psychological Services, Los Angeles, 2012) Modules 1 and 2 were designed and validated with…

Symptoms of autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder often co-occur, challenging timely, and accurate diagnosis. We assessed the performance of three parent-report measures in discriminating autism spectrum disorder from attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder without autism spectrum disorder (ADHD[subscritpt w/oASD])…

There is a critical need for validated screening tools for autism spectrum disorder in very young children so families can access tailored intervention services as early as possible. Few screeners exist for children between the recommended screening ages of 18-24 months. This study examined the utility of a new autism-specific parent-report…

Statistical learning-extracting regularities in the environment-may underlie complex social behavior. 124 children, 56 with autism and 68 typically developing, ages 2-8 years, completed a novel visual statistical learning task on an iPad. Averaged together, children with autism demonstrated less learning on the task compared to typically…

Longitudinal data on the functioning of adults referred for possible autism as children are sparse and possibly different from datasets consisting of adult clinical referrals. A total of 123 young adults, mean age of 26, referred for neurodevelopmental disorders in early childhood were categorized into three outcome groups: autism spectrum…

Little is known about their stability and the factors that influence their persistence or change over the life-course. To address this, we use data from 158 participants from the Special Needs and Autism Project cohort studied at three time-points from 12 to 23 years. We used latent growth models to study the role of child, family, and contextual…

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) tend to have significant delays in adaptive functioning. In this study, the relationship between adaptive behavior and ASD symptomatology was investigated in minimally verbal, school-aged children with ASD (n = 333). Both the social affect (SA) and restricted and repetitive behavior (RRB) domains…

Despite consistent and substantive research documenting a large male to female ratio in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), only a modest body of research exists examining sex differences in characteristics. This study examined sex differences in developmental functioning and early social communication in children with ASD as compared to children with…

The recently published Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd edition (ADOS-2) includes revised diagnostic algorithms and standardized severity scores for modules used to assess younger children. A revised algorithm and severity scores are not yet available for Module 4, used with verbally fluent adults. The current study revises the Module 4…

Standardized calibrated severity scores (CSS) have been created for Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd edition (ADOS-2) Modules 1-4 as a metric of the relative severity of autism-specific behaviors. Total and domain CSS were created for the Toddler Module to facilitate comparison to other modules. Analyses included 388 children with ASD…

Standardized Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) scores provide a measure of autism severity that is less influenced by child characteristics than raw totals (Gotham et al. in "Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders," 39(5), 693-705 2009). However, these scores combine symptoms from the Social Affect (SA) and Restricted…

The Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) is currently being used in clinical and genetic studies of autism as both a screener and as a quantitative measure of autistic traits. This article assesses the influence of nonspecific factors on SRS scores to aid researchers in their interpretations of these scores. In their commentary, Constantino and…

Research suggests that restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) can be subdivided into Repetitive Sensory Motor (RSM) and Insistence on Sameness (IS) behaviors. However, because the majority of previous studies have used the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), it is not clear whether these subcategories reflect the actual organization…

The Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) is commonly used to inform diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Considering the time dedicated to using the ADI-R, it is of interest to expand the ways in which information obtained from this interview is used. The current study examines how algorithm totals reflecting past (ADI-Diagnostic)…