Prevalence rates of depression are higher in autistic youth than neurotypical peers, yet the effects of autism spectrum disorder diagnosis and sex on depressive symptom severity remain incompletely understood, particularly in specific age groups. Using the Children's Depression Inventory, Second Edition, this study explored diagnostic- and…

Rumination, a form of passive, repetitive negative thinking, predicts the development of depressive disorders in non-autistic individuals, and recent work suggests higher levels of rumination may contribute to elevated rates of depression in the autistic population. Using psychological network analysis, this study sought to investigate the…

Standardized assessment of content knowledge for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) topics is pervasive in both K-12 and postsecondary institutions. Yet, most instruments are developed with little to no validation for students with learning disability (LD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and autism spectrum…

The researchers conducted an exploratory, qualitative case study to describe a combination of mathematics teaching strategies for a sixth-grade student with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder as he engaged with sixth-grade level mathematics. The interventions utilised in this study combined the use of visual representations with a variation…

This study assesses the psychometric properties of three self-report measures of autistic-like tendencies in the general adult population: "autistic spectrum quotient (AQ)", "adult repetitive behaviours questionnaire-2 (RBQ-2A)", and "systemizing quotient (SQ)". Three rounds of development and testing using different…

Studies have shown that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) screening and diagnostic instruments may be affected by the presence of emotional and behavior problems (EBPs). This study assessed the impact of EBPs on the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, Revised with Follow-up (M-CHAT-R/F). Participants included 290 children, 18-48 months of age,…

This study is intended to enhance our understanding of the dramatic increase in autism prevalence rates across the United States. A robust national and multistate sample of children and youth (5-22 years of age) was gathered and analyzed, using visual and statistical analysis of autism eligibility over a 15- to 17-year period. Although the impact…

Increasingly more students with disabilities, including autistic or otherwise neurodiverse students, are studying for degrees in STEM field subjects. In recent years, there has been an increased effort from the geoscience education community to make teaching more accessible and inclusive to these students. However, much of the literature on this…

Although there has been growing interest in utilizing robots for intervention in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there have been very few controlled trials to assess the actual impacts of such systems on social communication vulnerabilities. This study reports a randomized controlled trial to investigate a robot-mediated response to joint…

Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs), which allow naturalistic communication between two or more individuals in a shared virtual environment, hold promise as a tool for measuring and promoting social communication between peers. In this work, a CVE platform and a set of CVE-based collaborative games are designed for children with autism…

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by core deficits in social interaction and communication. Collaborative puzzle games are interactive activities that can be played to foster the collaboration and verbal-communication skills of children with ASD. In this article, we have designed an intelligent agent…

High-ability youth diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) historically have been neglected within samples validating ASD screening measures, and consensus for what constitutes high ability has not been established. The Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ) and Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) are two common screening tools for ASD…

Existing literature regarding social communication outcomes of interventions in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) depends upon human raters, with limited generalizability to real world settings. Technological innovation, particularly virtual reality (VR) and collaborative virtual environments (CVE), could offer a replicable, low cost measurement…

Most pediatric residency programs do not provide adequate practical experiences for residents in autism-related care, with a specific dearth of training in diagnostic processes. Without this training, residents enter the primary care workforce with uncertainty surrounding implementation of standard-of-care recommendations for children with autism.…

Functional communication training (FCT) is one of the most common treatments for challenging behavior and is considered an empirically supported practice for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, no previous systematic review has evaluated the quality of FCT for adults with ASD, and the empirical support for this…