Children with ASD experience significant gross motor challenges that could be addressed using motor interventions. However, contemporary ASD interventions that are sedentary in nature often target communication and fine motor skills and not children's gross motor difficulties.

Family interactions with the Supplemental Social Security Income (SSI) program and the decision to pursue legal guardianship are poorly understood in services research for autistic adults.

Despite misconceptions, autistic young adults are interested in romantic relationships (Fernandes et al., 2016; Hancock et al., 2019; Mehzabin & Stokes, 2011). Research is needed to better understand how the social characteristics of autism impact romantic relationship experiences, knowledge of sexual health, and confidence in one's own abilities. Social cognition skills are linked to functioning in interpersonal relationships and are important for understanding the mental states of others. The present research aims to explore the intersections among social cognition skills, romantic self-efficacy, perceived knowledge, and dating outcomes. We hypothesize that social cognition skill level, self-efficacy, perceived knowledge, and romantic relationship outcomes will be positively related.

Many autistic individuals exhibit clinically-significant motor difficulties. Previous reviews focused on overall motor ability or coordination, but with little attention paid to quantifying differences in upper extremity skills, which are critical to many activities of daily living. Our objective was to identify and evaluate the published literature on upper extremity motor skills of autistic people.

The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected the mental health of American mothers and mothers of children with disabilities may have been disproportionately impacted. The present study characterized psychological well-being, social support, and caregiving responsibilities during the pandemic across mothers of children with autism, fragile X syndrome (FXS), and neurotypical children.

Autistic youth experience high rates of anxiety, which has been treated with modified cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), often integrating exposure therapy. Such anxiety treatments are effective for this population; however, there remains a gap between these evidence-based mental health interventions and their implementation in community mental health (CMH) services where autistic youth receive care.

Although sensory sensitivities are common among autistic people, few studies have explored how they may be impacted by ageing. Little is known about the experiences of autistic people across adulthood or about the experiences of people assigned female-at-birth. Some results suggest that autistic people assigned female-at-birth report more sensory sensitivities, but little is known about experiences in middle-aged and older autistic people assigned female-at-birth.

Quality of life is an important outcome to autistic individuals. However, the correlates of quality of life in this population are not well known. The purpose of this project was to investigate the extent to which employment, depression, anxiety, and social participation were associated with quality of life in autistic individuals. We also explored potential associations between emotion dysregulation and quality of life.

Autistic children experience more stressful life events (SLEs) than their neurotypical peers, which are related to poor mental health outcomes in both neurotypical and autistic individuals. However, there is a lack of longitudinal research assessing the perceived impact of stressful life events on autistic children's mental health.

The social world is often stressful for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Research shows youth with ASD demonstrate physiological hyperreactivity to some social stressors (e.g., interaction) but not others (e.g., evaluation); therefore, this study examined diagnosis (ASD or typical development (TD)), social context, perceived anxiety, and physiological responsivity across multiple stress systems; namely, the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis and autonomic nervous system (ANS).

Rates of psychiatric hospitalization among adolescents in the United States are rising, with many adolescents presenting to these settings with diverse clinical presentations, including autistic traits. To our knowledge, there has been little research identifying clinical characteristics of adolescents with autistic traits admitted to psychiatric inpatient units, which may be leveraged to improve assessment and treatment practices.

Although autistic adults have demonstrated weaker memory performance on lab-based measures in comparison to neurotypical peers, research on self-reported memory abilities in this group is scarce. Shedding light on memory abilities of autistic adults is important, as memory difficulties may impact daily living outcomes, an area of difficulty for autistic individuals. Thus, the current study aimed to characterize the self-reported memory complaints of a large sample of autistic adults in comparison to neurotypical adults.

Recent trends suggest that autism is more common in females than traditionally held. Additionally, some argue that females express autistic traits differently than males. Dimensional views of autism could shed light on these issues, especially with regards to understudied behavioral areas, such as sensory processing. We examined autistic traits, sensory processing, anxiety, and related behaviors in a large sample of neurotypical young adult males and females ( = 1,122; 556 female; ages 19-26). Participants completed an online survey containing questionnaires related to the above. Between groups statistical analyses, as well as within groups correlations and mediation analyses containing these constructs were then computed. We also carried out a cluster analysis to establish groups with behavioral similarities and estimate within-cluster male/female ratios. Results showed modest differences in the overall expression of autistic traits and sensory processing, if any, between males and females. Conversely, more detailed examination of survey subtests and mediation analyses revealed differing profiles between these groups. Cluster analysis uncovered a group comprised of both males (69.8%) and females (30.2%) who exhibited elevated degrees of autism-related behaviors, suggesting a higher proportion of females than would be predicted by traditional ratios. Taken together, these findings suggest that males and females may not differ as much as previously thought in their general levels of autistic traits or sensory processing, but may present with distinct profiles of such behaviors. These novel results add to our understanding of autistic traits in females and have the potential to positively influence diagnostic and support practices.

Children on the autism spectrum encountered interruptions to their education due to the COVID-19 pandemic (White et al., 2021). This study examined the extent to which autistic children's anxiety and depressive symptoms during the pandemic were associated with the school format they attended in October 2020 (remote, in-person/hybrid, homeschool), controlling for their pre-pandemic symptoms. Pre-pandemic peer victimization and autism symptom characteristics were tested as moderators.

Autistic females are frequently underdiagnosed, misdiagnosed, and/or diagnosed later in life. Restricted and Repetitive Behaviors (RRBs) are increasingly critical for diagnosis and yet are commonly rated lower in females. Whether this reflects genuinely lower levels of these traits, or if female-typical RRBs have a different phenotypic presentation that may not register on current quantitative measurement tools is unclear.

Sleep disturbances, gastrointestinal problems, and atypical heart rate are commonly observed in patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and may relate to underlying function of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The overall objective of the current study was to quantitatively characterize features of ANS function using symptom scales and available electronic health record (EHR) data in a clinically and genetically characterized pediatric cohort.

Pragmatic language weaknesses, a core feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), are implicated in externalizing behavior disorders (Gremillion & Martel, 2014). Particularly in a clinical setting, these co-occurring externalizing disorders are very common in autism; rates of Attentional Deficit-Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) are as high as 83% (ADHD) and 73% (ODD; Joshi et al., 2010). It is possible that pragmatic language weaknesses impact the ability to effectively communicate one's needs, which may lead autistic children to utilize externalizing behaviors in order to achieve a desired outcome (Ketelaars et al., 2010; Rodas et al., 2017).

Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are at-risk for sleep and behavior problems, and their parents are at-risk for high stress. Child sleep duration, behavior problems, and parenting stress are interrelated; however, directionality of these associations is unclear and research including youth with ASD is lacking. Using a day-to-day, within-person design, this study explores the directionality of these relationships in families of children with ASD.

COVID-19 increased uncertainty for most and was especially disruptive to autistic people and their families, due in part to tendencies toward intolerance for uncertainty across this population. As such, COVID presented a natural experiment of uncertainty and its correlates in autism. Previous reports have shown associations between intolerance of uncertainty, sensory difficulty, and stress.

Difficulties with the ability to perform learned skilled movements, have been robustly demonstrated in autism spectrum disorder (autism). However, praxis assessment is not routinely included in autism characterization batteries, in part because it is traditionally time consuming to administer and score. We test whether dyspraxia in autism can be captured with a brief measure.

Speech articulation difficulties have not traditionally been considered to be a feature of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In contrast, speech prosodic differences have been widely reported in ASD, and may even be expressed in subtle form among clinically unaffected first-degree relatives, representing the expression of underlying genetic liability. Some evidence has challenged this traditional dichotomy, suggesting that differences in speech articulatory mechanisms may be evident in ASD, and potentially related to perceived prosodic differences. Clinical measurement of articulatory skills has traditionally been phoneme-based, rather than by acoustic measurement of motor control. Subtle differences in articulatory/motor control, prosodic characteristics (acoustic), and pragmatic language ability (linguistic) may each be contributors to differences perceived by listeners, but the interrelationship is unclear. In this study, we examined the articulatory aspects of this relationship, in speech samples from individuals with ASD and their parents during narration.