Experiments suggesting that a change in eye gaze creates a reflexive attention shift tend to confound motion direction and terminal eye direction. However, motion and the onset of motion are known to capture attention. Current thinking about social cognition in autism suggests that there might be a deficit in responding to social (eye gaze) cues…

Mothers of children aged 2-12 years completed an exhaustive questionnaire assessing feeding and eating behaviors for both themselves and their children with autism, and typically developing siblings of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (where available), or typically developing children with no sibling with a disability. Results indicate that…

Developmental disorders might differ in their language profiles when using parent reports. The first study indicated that school aged children with ASD have similar language profiles as children with ADHD. Both groups had relatively more difficulties with pragmatics than with structural language aspects. The second study indicated that both…

Deficits in the perception of social stimuli may contribute to the characteristic impairments in social interaction in high functioning autism (HFA). Although the cortical processing of voice is abnormal in HFA, it is unclear whether this gives rise to impairments in the perception of voice gender. About 20 children with HFA and 20 matched…

LEGO[R] therapy and the Social Use of Language Programme (SULP) were evaluated as social skills interventions for 6-11 year olds with high functioning autism and Asperger Syndrome. Children were matched on CA, IQ, and autistic symptoms before being randomly assigned to LEGO or SULP. Therapy occurred for 1 h/week over 18 weeks. A no-intervention…

Although research on Theory-of-Mind (ToM) is often based on single task measurements, more comprehensive instruments result in a better understanding of ToM development. The ToM Storybooks is a new instrument measuring basic ToM-functioning and associated aspects. There are 34 tasks, tapping various emotions, beliefs, desires and mental-physical…

Objective: The study was to examine nonverbal communication in young children with autism. Methods: The participants were 23 young children with autism (mean CA = 32.79 months), 23 CA and MA-matched children with developmental delay and 22 18-20-month-old, and 22 13-15-month-old typically developing toddlers and infants. The abbreviated Early…

We report rates of regression and associated findings in a population derived group of 255 children aged 9-14 years, participating in a prevalence study of autism spectrum disorders (ASD); 53 with narrowly defined autism, 105 with broader ASD and 97 with non-ASD neurodevelopmental problems, drawn from those with special educational needs within a…

The Classroom Observation Schedule to Measure Intentional Communication (COSMIC) was devised to provide ecologically valid outcome measures for a communication-focused intervention trial. Ninety-one children with autism spectrum disorder aged 6 years 10 months (SD 16 months) were videoed during their everyday snack, teaching and free play…

Although several studies have suggested an association between violent crime and Asperger syndrome (AS), few have examined the underlying reasons. The aim of this review is to determine to what extent psychiatric factors contribute to offending behavior in this population. Online databases were used to identify relevant articles which were then…

A measure of social perception (CASP) was used to assess differences in social perception among typically developing children, children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD), and children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Significant between-group differences were found in recognition of emotions in video, with children…

The goal of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and utility of a group-based cognitive behavioral intervention to improve social-cognitive functioning in adults with high-functioning autism (HFA). We modified the treatment manual of a previously validated intervention, Social Cognition and Interaction Training (SCIT), for optimal use with…

In this study a teacher training program for Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), based on "structured teaching" (Mesibov et al., The TEACCH approach to autism spectrum disorders, 2006) was developed and evaluated within a Pre-Post design. In total, 10 teachers working with 10 students with ASD (mean age 10.0 years) in special education classrooms in…

Other people's eye-gaze is a powerful social stimulus that captures and directs visual attention. There is evidence that this is not the case for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), although less is known about attention to eye-gaze in adults. We investigated whether young adults would detect a change to the direction of eye-gaze in…

Clinical trials targeting recently elucidated synaptic defects in fragile X syndrome (FXS) will require outcome measures capable of assessing short-term changes in cognitive functioning. Potentially useful measures for FXS were evaluated here in a test-retest setting in males and females with FXS (N = 46). Good reproducibility, determined by an…