A wealth of parent-report research shows adaptive functioning difficulties in autistic children, with parent-report influenced by a number of child factors. Adaptive functioning in autistic children is known to vary across settings; however, no research has yet explored factors influencing education professional-report. This study investigated the…

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by impairments in social communication and social cognition. Difficulties in emotion understanding, from emotion recognition to emotion regulation are common features that can affect the inclusion process. One outstanding question is the extent to which age and IQ affect…

Recent research has suggested that temporal sequencing of narrative events might be a domain-general ability that underlies oral narrative capacities. The current study investigated this issue in a group of children with known pragmatic and narrative difficulties, namely Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We hypothesized (1) that children with ASD (n…

Objectives: The aim of the study is to help identify the nature of impaired executive functioning (EF) in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is also argued that participant sampling by age alone should inform experimental research on EF, as selection through IQ matching may weaken any experimental effects. Methods: Sixteen children…

The ability to disengage attention and reengage elsewhere has been proposed as a fundamental deficit in the autism spectrum, potentially disrupting development of higher cognitive domains. Eye-movements were recorded while 16 autism spectrum children of mixed ability, and 18 typically developing age-matched controls, completed the Gap-Overlap…

This study examined psychometric characteristics of the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy--Second Edition (DANVA-2) in 121 children, ages 6 to 13 years, with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD). Internal consistency for adult and child faces subtests were 0.70 and 0.75, respectively. Immediate test-retest reliability in the…

Atypical social communication is a key indicator of autism spectrum disorder and has long been presumed to interfere with friendship formation and first impressions among typically developing youth. However, emerging literature suggests that such atypicalities may function differently among groups of peers with autism spectrum disorder. The…

Extreme prematurity is known as a risk factor for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the association between prematurity and ASD, for children born moderately and late preterm (MLPT) and those born early term (ET), is less established. This retrospective study aimed to characterize the phenotypic characteristics (i.e. behavioral profile and…

Understanding that people's ideas may be false is a challenging step in Theory of Mind (ToM) development, which is accomplished around the age of 4-5 years old by typically developing (TD) children. False-belief attribution remains difficult beyond this age for certain clinical populations, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), where delays in…

Background: Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate verbal communication disorders reflected in lower verbal than non-verbal abilities. The present study examined the extent to which this discrepancy is associated with atypical speech sound differentiation. Methods: Differences in the amplitude of auditory event-related…

Prosodic awareness has been linked with reading accuracy in typically developing children. Although children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often have difficulty processing prosody and often have trouble learning to read, no previous study has looked at the link between explicit prosodic awareness and reading in ASD. In the current study, 29…

Extant data suggest that the cognitive profiles of individuals with ASD may be characterized by variability, particularly in terms of verbal intellectual functioning (VIQ) and non-verbal intellectual functioning (NVIQ) discrepancies. The "Differential Ability Scales, Second Edition" (DAS-II) has limited data available on its use with…

Atypical sensory responses are common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While evidence suggests impaired auditory-visual integration for verbal information, findings for nonverbal stimuli are inconsistent. We tested for sensory symptoms in children with ASD (using the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile) and examined unisensory and bisensory…

This study investigated language profiles in a community-based sample of 104 children aged 1-3 years who had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder using "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" (5th ed.) diagnostic criteria. Language was assessed with the Mullen scales, Preschool Language Scale, fifth edition, and…

The current study evaluated the use of Superheroes Social Skills to promote accurate use of discrete social skills in training and generalization conditions in two children with autism spectrum disorder. Participants attended a twice weekly social skills training group over 5 weeks, with lessons targeting nonverbal, requesting, responding, and…