Identification of early signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) could lead to earlier diagnosis and intervention. This cross-sectional study used the Parent Observation of Early Markers Scale (POEMS, Feldman et al. in "J Autism Dev Disord" 42:13-12, 2012) to identify early signs of ASD in 69 ASD high-risk (older sibling diagnosed with…

It has been commonly held that "children suffer if their mother goes out to work". This research uses several studies--large scale longitudinal data--to look at the development of children whose mothers were employed when those children were very young.

Arbitrarily applicable derived relational responding has been argued by relational frame theorists to be a form of operant behavior. The present study examined this idea with 4 female participants, ages 4 to 5 years old, who could not perform a series of problem-solving tasks involving arbitrary more than and less than relations. In a combined…

Observed a group of 46 children classified at 20 months as either behaviorally inhibited or uninhibited, and 18 children who were classified aa falling at neither extreme at 5.5 years of age, in contexts designed to evaluate behavior in social situations and heart rate, heart variability, and pupillary dilation to cognitive tasks. (HOD)

This study compared the adaptive behaviors of 20 autistic, 20 Down's syndrome, and 20 normal children matched on age equivalent adaptive behavior, gender, race, birth order, family size, and socioeconomic status. The autistic children displayed significant and pervasive deficits in the acquisition of adaptive social skills and greater variability…

This study examined the development of aggressive and oppositional behavior among alcoholic and nonalcoholic families using latent growth modeling. The sample consisted of 226 families assessed at 18, 24, 36, and 48 months of child age. Results indicated that children in families with nonalcoholic parents had the lowest levels of aggressive…

This study examined the functions of structured modeling and mother-child play settings upon the development of pretend actions in young Down Syndrome children. Subjects were 30 pairs of Japanese children, with a developmental age range of 12-35 months, and their mothers. The children were individually administered five phases of premodeling,…

This study, which focused on the social behavior of 4-year-old children toward peers and adults, investigated relationships of 54 children in California and Japan who were observed for 20 minutes while they were playing in preschool or day care. All their behaviors during the first 30 seconds were observed and written down during the second 30…