Center-based classroom community interventions create opportunities for young children with autism to connect with peers. Yet, there has been little examination of the peer interactions of toddlers with autism who experience core challenges in social communication and play skills that may create barriers to successful peer interactions. Classrooms…

This study examined parent couples' participation in and satisfaction with speech-language therapy for school-age children with autism spectrum disorder in the United States. Responses from 40 father-mother couples (n = 80 parents) were examined across therapy components (i.e. parent-therapist communication, assessment, planning, and…

Communication with others relies on coordinated exchanges of social signals, such as eye gaze and facial displays. However, this can only happen when partners are able to see each other. Although previous studies report that autistic individuals have difficulties in planning eye gaze and making facial displays during conversation, evidence from…

Differences in social communication and interaction styles between autistic and typically developing have been studied in isolation and not in the context of real-world social interaction. The current study addresses this "blind spot" by examining whether real-world social interaction quality for autistic adults differs when interacting…

This study explored factors (gender, age, relationship status, symptomatology) associated with the sexual well-being of 141 (56 men and 85 women) adults with high-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome (HFA/AS) living in the community. Participants completed an online survey consisting of a measure of autistic symptoms as well as measures of…

Mother-infant interactions are a proximal process in early development and may be especially salient for children who are at risk for social difficulties (i.e. infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder). To inform how indices of maternal behaviors may improve parent-mediated interventions designed to mitigate autism spectrum…

Social communicative precursors to autism spectrum disorder may influence how infants who are later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder interact with their social partners and the responses they receive, thus bidirectionally influencing early social experience. This systematic review aimed to identify a developmental timeline for parent-infant…

This study examined the effectiveness of a school-based, collaborative technology intervention combined with cognitive behavioral therapy to teach the concepts of social collaboration and social conversation to children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders ("n" = 22) as well as to enhance their actual social engagement…

In this review, the history of the theory of mind (ToM) theory of autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) is outlined (in which ToM is indexed by success on false belief tasks), and the explanatory power and psychological causes of impaired ToM in ASD are critically discussed. It is concluded that impaired ToM by itself has only limited explanatory…