Most reports of sensory symptoms in autism are second hand or observational, and there is little evidence of a neurological basis. Sixty individuals with high-functioning autism and 61 matched typical participants were administered a sensory questionnaire and neuropsychological tests of elementary and higher cortical sensory perception. Thirty-two…

Children with autism spectrum conditions (ASC) have difficulties recognizing others' emotions. Research has mostly focused on "basic" emotion recognition, devoid of context. This study reports the results of a new task, assessing recognition of "complex" emotions and mental states in social contexts. An ASC group (n = 23) was compared to a general…

We report a major revision of the CHecklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT). This "quantitative" CHAT (Q-CHAT) contains 25 items, scored on a 5 point scale (0-4). The Q-CHAT was completed by parents of n = 779 unselected toddlers (mean age 21 months) and n = 160 toddlers and preschoolers (mean age 44 months) with an Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC).…

The Shared Activities Questionnaire (SAQ) is a self-report measure of children's behavioral intentions towards peers with disabilities. The SAQ has been validated as a measure of elementary school students' attitudes towards peers with disabilities. In the present study, psychometric properties of the SAQ as a measure of middle school students'…

A study is reported in which size sequencing on a touch screen is used as a measure of executive control in 20 high-functioning children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The data show a significant and age-independent effect of the length of sequence that can be executed without errors by these children, in comparison with a chronologically…

The biasing effect of pain sensitivity information and the impact of facial activity on observers' judgments of pain intensity of children with autism were examined. Observers received information that pain experience in children with autism is either the same as, more intense than, or less intense than children without autism. After viewing six…

Signal detection psychophysical experiments were conducted to investigate the visual path of children with autism. Computer generated images with Gaussian noise were used. Simple signals, still and in motion were embedded in the background noise. The computer monitor was linearized to properly display the contrast changes. To our knowledge, this…

Fifteen children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and twenty-one children without ASD completed six perceptual tasks designed to characterize the nature of the audiovisual processing difficulties experienced by children with ASD. Children with ASD scored significantly lower than children without ASD on audiovisual tasks involving human faces…

Parents report that their children with autism are often judged as undisciplined and rude (e.g., Peeters, Autism: From theoretical understanding to educational intervention, 1997). The phenomenon of a negative view of individuals with autism was studied here. Four behaviors (two problematic and two non-problematic) produced by a six-year-old child…

Cognitive performance and the relationship between theory of mind (TOM), weak central coherence and executive function were investigated in a cohort of young people with additional learning needs. Participants were categorized by social communication questionnaire score into groups of 10 individuals within the autistic spectrum disorder (ASD)…

Language and communication deficits are key diagnostic criteria for autism. However, not all aspects of language are equally affected. Here we present evidence of "enhanced" performance of a critical aspect of language--word processing--in children with autism. The results have implications for explanatory theories of autism and language, and for…

A large body of research has reported visual perception deficits in both people with dyslexia and autistic spectrum disorders. In this study, we compared form and motion coherence detection between a group of adults with high-functioning autism, a group with Asperger's disorder, a group with dyslexia, and a matched control group. It was found that…

Although research in autism has grown more sophisticated, the gap between research knowledge and applicability of research in real world settings has grown. There have been a number of different reviews of evidence-based practices of treatments for young children with autism. Reviews which have critically evaluated the empirical evidence have not…

Facial feedback mechanisms of adolescents with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD) were investigated utilizing three studies. Facial expressions, which became activated via automatic (Studies 1 and 2) or intentional (Study 2) mimicry, or via holding a pen between the teeth (Study 3), influenced corresponding emotions for controls, while individuals…

Friendships containing a child with autism and a friend with typical development ("mixed" friendships, n = 26) and those of children with autism and a friend with a disability ("non-mixed," n = 16) were contrasted with friendships of typically developing subjects and their friends (n = 31). Measures included dyadic interaction samples, and…