Current clinical diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) occurs between 3 and 4 years of age, but increasing evidence indicates that intervention begun earlier may improve outcomes. Using secondary analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data set, the current study identifies early predictors prior to the diagnosis of…

Early intervention has been reported to improve outcome in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Several studies in the field have been randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The aim of this study was to assess ASD outcome in a large naturalistic study. Two hundred and eight children, aged 20-54 months, with a clinical diagnosis of ASD…

Prospective questionnaire data from a longitudinal population sample on children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), developmental delay, specific language impairment, or typical development (TD), were collected at ages eight, 12 and 24 months, via the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scale Developmental Profile (CSBS)--Infant Toddler…

This randomized controlled trial compared results obtained after 12 months of nonintensive parent training plus care-as-usual and care-as-usual alone. The training focused on stimulating joint attention and language skills and was based on the intervention described by Drew et al. (Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatr 11:266-272, 2002). Seventy-five…

Children with autism achieve mirror self-recognition appropriate to developmental age, but are nonetheless reported to have problems in other aspects of a sense of self. We observed behaviour in the mirror in 12 pre-school children with autism, 13 pre-school children with Down syndrome (DS) and 13 typically developing (TD) toddlers. Reliable…

The development of imitation during the second year of life plays an important role in domains of sociocognitive development such as language and social learning. Deficits in imitation ability in persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from toddlerhood into adulthood have also been repeatedly documented, raising the possibility that early…

In this article, written by Phil Reed and Lisa Osborne, both from Swansea University, the impact of severity of autism, and the time-input of the treatment programme, on the outcome effectiveness for four early interventions for individuals on the autism spectrum was explored. The four interventions studied were applied behaviour analysis (ABA),…

Background: The Social Communication Questionnaire (SCQ) is a screening instrument with established validity against the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) in children aged 4 years and older. Indices of diagnostic accuracy have been shown to be strong in school-aged samples; however, relatively little is known about the performance of the…

Unstructured mother-toddler interactions were examined in 18-month-old high- and low-risk children subsequently diagnosed (n = 12) or not diagnosed (n = 21) with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) at 36 months. Differences in maternal sensitivity were not found as a function of emergent ASD status. A differential-susceptibility moderation model of…

This study examined repetitive and stereotyped behaviors (RSB) in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD, n = 50), developmental delays without ASD (DD; n = 25) and typical development (TD, n = 50) between 18 and 24 months of age. Children with ASD demonstrated significantly higher frequency and longer duration of RSB with objects, body, and…

The authors assessed the reliability of the Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI-R). Seven Clinical Examiners evaluated a three and one half year old female toddler suspected of being on the Autism Spectrum. Examiners showed agreement levels of 94-96% across all items, with weighted kappa (K[subscript w]) between 0.80 and 0.88. They were in 100%…

Current clinical diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) occurs between 3 and 4 years of age, but increasing evidence indicates that intervention begun earlier may improve outcomes. Using secondary analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data set, the current study identifies early predictors prior to the diagnosis of…

We investigated the congruent and criterion validity of the Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC) in a clinical sample of toddlers seen over 1 year in Turkey. All consecutive patients (N = 93), 14-43 months old (mean, 30.6 mos.), in a child psychiatry outpatient clinic were included. The ABC, Autism Behavior Checklist (AuBC), and Child Behavior…

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by deficits in socialization, communication, and restricted interests and repetitive behaviors. In addition to these core deficits, individuals with ASD also experience co-occurring conditions such as problem behaviors. Problem behaviors are common to this…

This study used eye-tracking to examine visual scanning and recognition of faces by 2- and 4-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (N = 44) and typically developing (TD) controls (N = 30). TD toddlers at both age levels scanned and recognized faces similarly. Toddlers with ASD looked increasingly away from faces with age,…