Purpose: The present study explored the extent to which early prelinguistic communication skills predict expressive language in toddlers with autistic siblings (Sibs-autism), who are known to be at high likelihood for autism and language disorder, and a comparison group of toddlers with non-autistic older siblings (Sibs-NA). Method: Participants…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine if 2.5-year-olds with language delay would learn verbs ("spill") when presented with varying syntactic structure ("The woman is spilling the milk"/"The milk is spilling"; "milk" = patient or theme) in a therapeutic context. Children with language delay have…

Purpose: Telemedicine approaches to autism (ASD) assessment have become increasingly common, yet few validated tools exist for this purpose. This study presents results from a clinical trial investigating two approaches to tele-assessment for ASD in toddlers. Methods: 144 children (29% female) between 17 and 36 months of age (mean = 2.5 years, SD…

Robust evidence supports the efficacy of early autism intervention. Despite broad consensus that earlier intervention leads to better outcomes, evidence for this has been limited to correlational studies. This study examined timing effects of the Early Social Interaction (ESI) model, a parent-implemented intervention, using a complete crossover…

Currently, no culturally and linguistically adapted autism screening tools are available in South Africa. The aim was to determine the reliability and concurrent validity of the adapted English and Northern Sotho-translated Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers--Revised with Follow-up (M-CHAT-R/F). Reliability was confirmed with near-perfect…

Autism is often associated with early developmental delays in language and motor skills. However, little is known about the complex dynamic processes that drive the co-development of such early difficulties. The aim of the present study was to model the parallel growth of language and motor skills in a cohort of infants and to explore differences…

Purpose: Caregivers of autistic children present with high stress levels, which have been associated with poorer child outcomes in several domains, including language development. However, prior to this study, it was unknown whether elevated caregiver stress was associated with language development in infant siblings of autistic children…

Recent efforts have focused on developing and evaluating early intervention for toddlers with probable or emerging autism spectrum disorder. Parent-mediated approaches have gained traction, with mounting evidence of efficacy, but a research-to-practice gap exists, and community effectiveness remains to be firmly established. We report outcomes of…

Often included within 'high-risk sibling' studies, the Autism Observation Scale for Infants (AOSI) has only one independent replication study and no evaluation with community-ascertained cohorts. We administered the AOSI and established clinical measures with 103 infants (68% male) at 'high autism likelihood' on the Social Attention and…

One of the earliest indicators of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is delay in language and social communication. Despite consensus on the benefits of earlier diagnosis and intervention, our understanding of the language growth of children with ASD during the first years of life remains limited. Therefore, this study compared communication growth…

Characterization of language in naturalistic settings in autism spectrum disorder has been lacking, particularly at young ages, but such information is important for parents, teachers, and clinicians to better support language development in real-world settings. Factors contributing to this lack of clarity include conflicting definitions of…

Autism spectrum disorder symptom emergence is heterogeneous, yet literature comparing young children diagnosed early versus later is relatively scant. Toddlers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder between 12 and 18 months (n = 20), 19 and 24 months (n = 65), or 25 and 41 months (n = 27) were compared on demographics, developmental functioning,…

While many children with autism spectrum disorder are now detected at young ages given the rise in screening and general awareness, little is known regarding the prognosis of early detected children. The brain is shaped by experience-dependent mechanisms; thus, what a child pays attention to plays a pivotal role in shaping brain development. Eye…

Purpose: Differences in communication development impact long-term outcomes of children with autism. Previous research has identified factors associated with communication in children with autism, but much of the variance in communication skill remains unexplained. It has been proposed that early differences in sensory responsiveness (i.e.,…

The effects of environmental factors [including Socio-Economic Status, Cultural Capital, and Social Capital (Socio-Cultural Level) of both parents] on the Vineland-II adaptive behavior dimensions of toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), in addition to individual factors, was investigated in 148 Italian toddlers (82% males), aged 18 to…