Sleep problems are common in children and adolescents, particularly those with Neurodevelopmental Disorders. With the changes in daily habits resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, we have analyzed sleep characteristics, during social isolation, in Brazilian children and adolescents aged between 4 and 12 years with Autism Spectrum Disorder (N =…

Elevated "neural noise" has been advanced as an explanation of autism and autistic sensory experiences. However, functional neuroimaging measures of neural noise may be vulnerable to contamination by recording noise. This study explored variability of electrophysiological responses to tones of different intensities in 127 autistic and 79…

In a recent editorial, Mandy declared an autism mental health crisis and proposed six ideas for how this might be addressed, with which we agree. However, we propose that for these ideas (e.g. training for mental health professionals) to be implemented for psychologists, assumptions about best practice need to be assessed considering the evolving…

Since the retina shares its embryological origin with the central nervous system, optical coherence tomography (OCT), an imaging technique frequently employed in ophthalmology to analyze the macula and intraretinal layer thicknesses and volumes, has recently become increasingly important in psychiatric research. We examined 34 autistic and 31…

Purpose: Autistic children with limited spoken language ability (LSLA) often do not respond to traditional interventions, reducing their social inclusion. It is essential to identify effective interventions, and sensitive measures to track their intervention response. Methods: Using data from an RCT comparing music-mediated and play-based…

Today, the global prevalence of autism is high and continues to increase dramatically. Effective support and interventions are therefore warranted. Augmented reality (AR), one of the recent modalities of immersive technology, is gaining traction in autism interventions. However, there is currently a lack of reviews on the use of AR in children…

This study investigated how emotional valence of a perceived emotional state impacted performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes task (RMET) in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing (TD) controls. Valence of items on the RMET, Adult (RMET-A) and Child (RMET-C) versions, was first classified in a survey of…

Autistic youth display difficulties in emotion recognition, yet little research has examined behavioral and neural indices of vocal emotion recognition (VER). The current study examines behavioral and event-related potential (N100, P200, Late Positive Potential [LPP]) indices of VER in autistic and non-autistic youth. Participants (N = 164)…

Current challenges in early identification of autism spectrum disorder lead to significant delays in starting interventions, thereby compromising outcomes. Digital tools can potentially address this barrier as they are accessible, can measure autism-relevant phenotypes and can be administered in children's natural environments by non-specialists.…

Prefrontal synthesis (PFS) is a component of constructive imagination. It is defined as the process of mentally juxtaposing objects into novel combinations. For example, to comprehend the instruction "put the cat under the dog and above the monkey," it is necessary to use PFS in order to correctly determine the spatial arrangement of the…

Designing effective literacy interventions is a primary topic of importance in educational law, research, and practice (IDEA, 2004; International Dyslexia Association, 2020). The purpose of this article is to examine inclusive approaches to literacy instruction and reading comprehension for students with autism that in turn supports instructional…

Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by a wide range of behavioral alterations, including impaired social interaction and repetitive behaviors. Numerous pharmacological interventions have been developed for autism spectrum disorder, often proving ineffective and accompanied by a multitude of side effects. The gut…

Feeding challenges are a significant concern for autistic children. Literature has yet to comprehensively characterize feeding challenges for autistic children. Further research is needed to understand predictors of feeding severity and identify opportunities for screening and intervention. The purpose of this study was to characterize the…

Primary reflexes are highly stereotypical, automatic movements comprising much of the motor repertoire of newborns. The current study examined rates of presence of five primary reflexes (snout, visual rooting, sucking, tactile rooting, and grasp) and variables predictive of their persistence for children with ASD (n = 35), developmental disability…

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of tact and match-to-sample instructions on the increase and maintenance of intraverbal responses to subcategorical questions (i.e., naming multiple items in a subcategory of a category). Three Chinese children on the autism spectrum (2 boys, 1 girl, aged 6-8 years old) participated in this…