Epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders in adults in the community in England. The bidirectional association between sleep problems and autism spectrum disorder: a population-based cohort study A Virtual Week study of prospective memory function in autism spectrum disorders. Predictors of schizophrenia spectrum disorders in early-onset first episodes of psychosis: a support vector machine model Randomized controlled trial of vitamin D supplementation in children with autism spectrum disorder Developmental Profiles of Infants and Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorders Identified Prospectively in a Community-Based Setting Autism spectrum disorders in extremely preterm children. Anatomical differences in the mirror neuron system and social cognition network in autism. ‘Everyday Memory’ Impairments in Autism Spectrum Disorders Randomized comparative trial of a social cognitive skills group for children with autism spectrum disorder. Diminished Time-Based, but Undiminished Event-Based, Prospective Memory Among Intellectually High-Functioning Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Relation to Working Memory Ability Slipped lips: onset asynchrony detection of auditory-visual language in autism. Intranasal Oxytocin Enhances Connectivity in the Neural Circuitry Supporting Social Motivation and Social Perception in Children with Autism Altered temporal profile of visual–auditory multisensory interactions in dyslexia Innate Immunity Associated with Inflammatory Responses and Cytokine Production against Common Dietary Proteins in Patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder Cognitive behavioral therapy for early adolescents with autism spectrum disorders and clinical anxiety: a randomized, controlled trial. Early Language and Communication Development of Infants Later Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder Using the preschool language scale, fourth edition to characterize language in preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders. The Social Communication Intervention Project: a randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of speech and language therapy for school-age children who have pragmatic and social communication problems with or without autism spectrum disorder. Effectiveness of sensory integration interventions in children with autism spectrum disorders: a pilot study. Time-Based and Event-Based Prospective Memory in Autism Spectrum Disorder: The Roles of Executive Function and Theory of Mind, and Time-Estimation Randomized Controlled Trial: Multimodal Anxiety and Social Skill Intervention for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder Imitation from 12 to 24 months in autism and typical development: a longitudinal Rasch analysis.
CONTEXT To our knowledge , there is no published information on the epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders ( ASDs ) in adults . If the prevalence of autism is increasing , rates in older adults would be expected to be lower than rates among younger adults . OBJECTIVE To estimate the prevalence and characteristics of adults with ASD living in the community in Engl and . DESIGN A stratified , multiphase r and om sample was used in the third national survey of psychiatric morbidity in adults in Engl and in 2007 . Survey data were weighted to take account of study design and nonresponse so that the results were representative of the household population . SETTING General community ( ie , private households ) in Engl and . PARTICIPANTS Adults ( people 16 years or older ) . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule , Module 4 in phase 2 vali date d against the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised and Diagnostic Interview for Social and Communication Disorders in phase 3 . A 20-item subset of the Autism-Spectrum Quotient self-completion question naire was used in phase 1 to select respondents for phase 2 . Respondents also provided information on sociodemographics and their use of mental health services . RESULTS Of 7461 adult participants who provided a complete phase 1 interview , 618 completed phase 2 diagnostic assessment s. The weighted prevalence of ASD in adults was estimated to be 9.8 per 1000 ( 95 % confidence interval , 3.0 - 16.5 ) . Prevalence was not related to the respondent 's age . Rates were higher in men , those without educational qualifications , and those living in rented social ( government-financed ) housing . There was no evidence of increased use of services for mental health problems . CONCLUSIONS Conducting epidemiologic research on ASD in adults is feasible . The prevalence of ASD in this population is similar to that found in children . The lack of an association with age is consistent with there having been no increase in prevalence and with its causes being temporally constant . Adults with ASD living in the community are socially disadvantaged and tend to be unrecognized Background Sleep difficulties are prevalent in children with autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) . The temporal nature of the association between sleep problems and ASD is unclear because longitudinal studies are lacking . Our aim is to clarify whether sleep problems precede and worsen autistic traits and ASD or occur as a consequence of the disorder . Methods Repeated sleep measures were available at 1.5 , 3 , 6 , and 9 years of age in 5151 children participating in the Generation R Study , a large prospect i ve birth cohort in the Netherl and s. Autistic traits were determined with the Pervasive Developmental Problems score ( PDP ) of the Child Behavior Checklist ( CBCL ) at 1.5 and 3 years and the Social Responsiveness Scale ( SRS ) at 6 years . This cohort included 81 children diagnosed with ASD . Results Sleep problems in early childhood were prospect ively associated with a higher SRS score , but not when correcting for baseline PDP score . By contrast , a higher SRS score and an ASD diagnosis were associated with more sleep problems at later ages , even when adjusting for baseline sleep problems . Likewise , a trajectory of increasing sleep problems was associated with ASD . Conclusions Sleep problems and ASD are not bidirectionally associated . Sleep problems do not precede and worsen autistic behavior but rather co-occur with autistic traits in early childhood . Over time , children with ASD have an increase in sleep problems , whereas typically developing children have a decrease in sleep problems . Our findings suggest that sleep problems are part of the construct ASD Prospect i ve memory ( PM ) refers to the implementation of delayed intentions , a cognitive ability that plays a critical role in daily life because of its involvement in goal -directed behavior and consequently the development and maintenance of independence . Emerging evidence indicates that PM may be disrupted in autism spectrum disorders ( ASDs ) , potentially contributing to the functional difficulties that characterize this group . However , the degree , nature , and specificity of ASD-related impairment remains poorly understood . In the current study , children between 8 and 12 years of age who were diagnosed with ASDs ( n=30 ) were compared with typically developing children ( n=30 ) on a child-appropriate version of the Virtual Week board game . This measure provides an opportunity to investigate the different sorts of PM failures that occur . The ASD group showed significant PM impairment on measures of time-based ( but not event-based ) prospect i ve remembering . However , only a subtle difference emerged between regular and irregular PM tasks , and group differences were consistent across these tasks . Because regular and irregular tasks differentially load retrospective memory , these data imply that the PM difficulties seen in ASDs may primarily reflect a monitoring deficit and not an encoding and memory storage deficit . PM performance was poorer under conditions of high ongoing task absorption , but the magnitude of this effect did not vary as a function of group . In both groups , time-based ( but not event-based ) PM difficulties were associated with functional outcomes in daily life , but only an inconsistent association with executive control emerged Identifying early-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders ( SSD ) at a very early stage remains challenging . To assess the diagnostic predictive value of multiple types of data at the emergence of early-onset first-episode psychosis ( FEP ) , various support vector machine ( SVM ) classifiers were developed . The data were from a 2-year , prospect i ve , longitudinal study of 81 patients ( age 9–17 years ) with early-onset FEP and a stable diagnosis during follow-up and 42 age- and sex-matched healthy controls ( HC ) . The input was different combinations of baseline clinical , neuropsychological , magnetic resonance imaging brain volumetric and biochemical data , and the output was the diagnosis at follow-up ( SSD vs. non-SSD , SSD vs. HC , and non-SSD vs. HC ) . Enhanced recursive feature elimination was performed for the SSD vs. non-SSD classifier to select and rank the input variables with the highest predictive value for a diagnostic outcome of SSD . After validation with a test set and considering all baseline variables together , the SSD vs. non-SSD , SSD vs. HC and non-SSD vs. HC classifiers achieved an accuracy of 0.81 , 0.99 and 0.99 , respectively . Regarding the SSD vs. non-SSD classifier , a combination of baseline clinical variables ( severity of negative , disorganized symptoms and hallucinations or poor insight ) and neuropsychological variables ( impaired attention , motor coordination , and global cognition ) showed the highest predictive value for a diagnostic outcome of SSD . Neuroimaging and biochemical variables at baseline did not add to the predictive value . Thus , comprehensive clinical /cognitive assessment remains the most reliable approach for differential diagnosis during early-onset FEP . SVMs may constitute promising multivariate tools in the search for predictors of diagnostic outcome in FEP BACKGROUND Autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) is a frequent developmental disorder characterized by pervasive deficits in social interaction , impairment in verbal and nonverbal communication , and stereotyped patterns of interests and activities . It has been previously reported that there is vitamin D deficiency in autistic children ; however , there is a lack of r and omized controlled trials of vitamin D supplementation in ASD children . METHODS This study is a double-blinded , r and omized clinical trial ( RCT ) that was conducted on 109 children with ASD ( 85 boys and 24 girls ; aged 3 - 10 years ) . The aim of this study was to assess the effects of vitamin D supplementation on the core symptoms of autism in children . ASD patients were r and omized to receive vitamin D3 or placebo for 4 months . The serum levels of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol ( 25 (OH)D ) were measured at the beginning and at the end of the study . The autism severity and social maturity of the children were assessed by the Childhood Autism Rating Scale ( CARS ) , Aberrant Behavior Checklist ( ABC ) , Social Responsiveness Scale ( SRS ) , and the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist ( ATEC ) . TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER UMIN-CTR Study Design : trial number : UMIN000020281 . RESULTS Supplementation of vitamin D was well tolerated by the ASD children . The daily doses used in the therapy group was 300 IU vitamin D3/kg/day , not to exceed 5,000 IU/day . The autism symptoms of the children improved significantly , following 4-month vitamin D3 supplementation , but not in the placebo group . This study demonstrates the efficacy and tolerability of high doses of vitamin D3 in children with ASD . CONCLUSIONS This study is the first double-blinded RCT proving the efficacy of vitamin D3 in ASD patients . Depending on the parameters measured in the study , oral vitamin D supplementation may safely improve signs and symptoms of ASD and could be recommended for children with ASD . At this stage , this study is a single RCT with a small number of patients , and a great deal of additional wide-scale studies are needed to critically vali date the efficacy of vitamin D in ASD This prospect i ve , longitudinal , study charted the developmental profiles of young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders ( ASD ) identified through routine developmental surveillance . 109 children with Autistic Disorder ( AD ) , ‘ broader ’ ASD , and developmental and /or language delays ( DD/LD ) were assessed using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning ( MSEL ) at 12-months ( n = 10 assessment s ) , 18-months ( n = 45 assessment s ) , and 24-months ( n = 99 assessment s ) . The children with AD performed most poorly , overall , than the ASD and DD/LD groups on the MSEL . Furthermore , the children with AD/ASD displayed an uneven cognitive profile , with poorer performance on verbal ( particularly receptive language ) relative to nonverbal skills . There was also evidence of developmental slowing in verbal skills from 18- to 24-months for children on the spectrum , especially those with AD . Given that the poor receptive , relative to expressive , language profile emerges very early in life for children with AD/ASD , this cognitive profile may serve as an additional red flag to social attention and communication deficits . Receptive language should therefore be stringently monitored in any developmental surveillance program for autism spectrum disorders in the second year of life OBJECTIVES To investigate the prevalence , correlates , and antecedents of autism spectrum disorders ( ASD ) in extremely preterm children . STUDY DESIGN We conducted a prospect i ve study of all births < 26 weeks gestation in the United Kingdom and Irel and in 1995 . Of 307 survivors at 11 years , 219 ( 71 % ) were assessed and compared with 153 term-born classmates . Parents completed the  Social Communication Question naire ( SCQ )  to assess autism spectrum symptoms , and ASD were diagnosed by using a psychiatric evaluation . An IQ test and clinical evaluation were also administered . Longitudinal outcome data were available for extremely preterm children . RESULTS Extremely preterm children had significantly higher SCQ scores than classmates ( mean difference , 4.6 points ; 95 % CI , 3.4 - 5.8 ) . Sixteen extremely preterm children ( 8 % ) were assigned an ASD diagnosis , compared with none of the classmates . By hospital discharge , male sex , lower gestation , vaginal breech delivery , abnormal cerebral ultrasound scanning results , and not having had breast milk were independently associated with autism spectrum symptoms . By 6 years , independent associates were cognitive impairment , inattention and peer problems , withdrawn behavior at 2.5 years , and not having had breast milk . CONCLUSIONS Extremely preterm children are at increased risk for autism spectrum symptoms and ASD in middle childhood . These symptoms and disorders were associated with neurocognitive outcomes , suggesting that ASD may result from abnormal brain development in this population Autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) is a neurodevelopmental disorder associated with impaired social and emotional skills , the anatomical substrate of which is still unknown . In this study , we compared a group of 14 high-functioning ASD adults with a group of controls matched for sex , age , intelligence quotient , and h and edness . We used an automated technique of analysis that accurately measures the thickness of the cerebral cortex and generates cross-subject statistics in a coordinate system based on cortical anatomy . We found local decreases of gray matter in the ASD group in areas belonging to the mirror neuron system ( MNS ) , argued to be the basis of empathic behavior . Cortical thinning of the MNS was correlated with ASD symptom severity . Cortical thinning was also observed in areas involved in emotion recognition and social cognition . These findings suggest that the social and emotional deficits characteristic of autism may reflect abnormal thinning of the MNS and the broader network of cortical areas subserving social cognition Abstract ‘ Everyday memory ’ is conceptualised as memory within the context of day-to-day life and , despite its functional relevance , has been little studied in individuals with autism spectrum disorders ( ASDs ) . In the first study of its kind , 94 adolescents with an ASD and 55 without an ASD completed measures of everyday memory  from the Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test ( RBMT ) and a st and ard word recall task ( Children ’s Auditory Verbal Learning Test-2 : CAVLT-2 ) . The ASD group showed significant impairments on the RBMT  , including in prospect i ve memory , alongside impaired performance on the CAVLT-2 . Social and communication ability was significantly associated with prospect i ve remembering in an everyday memory context but not with the CAVLT-2 . The complex nature of everyday memory and its relevance to ASD is discussed OBJECTIVE This study evaluated the efficacy of a targeted social skills training group in school-aged children with autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) . The intervention , Seaver-NETT ( Nonverbal communication , Emotion recognition , and Theory of mind Training ) , is a 12-session cognitive-behavioral intervention ( CBI ) for verbal , school-aged children targeting ASD-specific social behavioral impairments . METHOD Sixty-nine children with ASD , 8 to 11 years of age , with verbal IQs greater than 70 , participated in a r and omized comparative trial to examine the efficacy of NETT relative to a facilitated play group . Treatment outcomes included caregiver reports of social behavior and neuropsychological assessment s of social cognition conducted by blinded raters . Outcomes were collected at baseline , endpoint , and 3 months posttreatment . RESULTS Significant improvements were found on social behavior outcomes such as nonverbal communication , empathic responding , and social relations in the NETT condition relative to the active control at endpoint . Verbal IQ moderated the interaction effect on social behavior , with higher verbal IQ associated with improvements in the CBI condition . No significant improvements were found on social cognitive outcomes . No significant group differences were found at 3-month follow-up conducted with approximately half the sample ( n = 34 ) . CONCLUSION These data indicate that targeted CBI social skills groups such as NETT improve social communication deficits in verbal , school-aged children with ASD . The moderating effects of high verbal IQ suggest a need to consider participant and treatment characteristics associated with outcomes in future studies . Clinical trial registration information-Neural and Behavioral Outcomes of Social Skills Groups in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder ; https:// clinical trials.gov ; NCT01190917 Objective : Prospect i ve memory ( PM ) is the ability to remember to carry out an intended action . Working memory is the ability to store information in mind while processing potentially distracting information . The few previous studies of PM in autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) have yielded inconsistent findings . Studies of working memory ability in ASD have suggested a selective impairment of “ visual working memory . ” However , it remains unclear whether any such impairment is the result of diminished ( domain-specific ; visual/verbal ) storage capacity or diminished ( domain-general ) processing capacity . We aim to clarify these issues and explore the relation between PM and working memory in ASD . Method : Seventeen adults with ASD and 17 age- and IQ-matched comparison participants completed experimental measures of both event-based ( perform action x when event y occurs ) and time-based ( perform action a at time b ) PM , plus a self-report measure of PM skills  . Participants also completed a working memory test battery . Results : Participants with ASD self-reported diminished PM skill , and showed diminished performance on the time-based , but not event-based , PM task . On the working memory test battery , visual but not verbal storage capacity was diminished among participants with ASD , as was processing ability . Whereas visual storage was associated with event-based PM task performance among comparison participants , verbal storage was associated among ASD participants . Conclusions : ASD appears to involve a selective deficit in time-based PM and a selective difficulty with aspects of working memory that depend on the storage of visual information . However , event-based PM may be achieved through compensatory strategies in ASD BACKGROUND It has frequently been suggested that individuals with autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) have deficits in auditory-visual ( AV ) sensory integration . Studies of language integration have mostly used non-word syllables presented in congruent and incongruent AV combinations and demonstrated reduced influence of visual speech in individuals with ASD . The aim of our study was to test whether adolescents with high-functioning autism are able to integrate AV information of meaningful , phrase-length language in a task of onset asynchrony detection . METHODS Participants were 25 adolescents with ASD and 25 typically developing ( TD ) controls . The stimuli were video clips of complete phrases using simple , commonly occurring words . The clips were digitally manipulated to have the video precede the corresponding audio by 0 , 4 , 6 , 8 , 10 , 12 , or 14 video frames , a range of 0 - 500ms . Participants were shown the video clips in r and om order and asked to indicate whether each clip was in-synch or not . RESULTS There were no differences between adolescents with ASD and their TD peers in accuracy of onset asynchrony detection at any slip rate . CONCLUSION These data indicate that adolescents with ASD are able to integrate auditory and visual components in a task of onset asynchrony detection using natural , phrase-length language stimuli . We propose that the meaningful nature of the language stimuli in combination with presentation in a non-distracting environment allowed adolescents with autism spectrum disorder to demonstrate preserved accuracy for bi-modal AV integration Oxytocin ( OT ) has become a focus in investigations of autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) . The social deficits that characterize ASD may relate to reduced connectivity between brain sites on the mesolimbic reward pathway ( nucleus accumbens ; amygdala ) that receive OT projections and contribute to social motivation , and cortical sites involved in social perception . Using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a r and omized , double blind , placebo-controlled crossover design , we show that OT administration in ASD  increases activity in brain regions important for perceiving social-emotional information . Further , OT  enhances connectivity between nodes of the brain ’s reward and socioemotional processing systems , and does so preferentially for social ( versus nonsocial ) stimuli . This effect is observed both while viewing coherent versus scrambled biological motion , and while listening to happy versus angry voices . Our findings suggest a mechanism by which intranasal OT may bolster social motivation — one that could , in future , be harnessed to augment behavioral treatments for ASD Recent studies have demonstrated that dyslexia is associated with deficits in the temporal encoding of sensory information . While most previous studies have focused on information processing within a single sensory modality , it is clear that the deficits seen in dyslexia span multiple sensory systems . Surprisingly , although the development of linguistic proficiency involves the rapid and accurate integration of auditory and visual cues , the capacity of dyslexic individuals to integrate information between the different senses has not been systematic ally examined . To test this , we studied the effects of task-irrelevant auditory information on the performance of a  visual temporal-order-judgment ( TOJ ) task .  Dyslexic subjects ’ performance differed significantly from that of control subjects , specifically in that they integrated the auditory and visual information over longer temporal intervals . Such a result suggests an extended temporal “ window ” for binding visual and auditory cues in dyslexic individuals . The potential deleterious effects of this finding for rapid multisensory processes such as reading are discussed Objectives : Children with autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) frequently reveal various gastrointestinal ( GI ) symptoms that may resolve with an elimination diet along with apparent improvement of some of the behavioral symptoms . Evidence suggests that ASD may be accompanied by aberrant ( inflammatory ) innate immune responses . This may predispose ASD children to sensitization to common dietary proteins ( DP ) , leading to GI inflammation and aggravation of some behavioral symptoms . Methods : We measured IFN-γ , IL-5 , and TNF-α production against representative DPs [ gliadin , cow ’s milk protein ( CMP ) , and soy ] by peripheral blood mononuclear  cells ( P BMC s ) from ASD and control children [ those with DP intolerance ( DPI ) , ASD siblings , and healthy unrelated children ] . We evaluated the results in association with proinflammatory and counter-regulatory cytokine production with endotoxin ( LPS ) , a microbial product of intestinal flora and a surrogate stimulant for innate immune responses . Results : ASD P BMC s produced elevated IFN-γ and TNF-α , but not IL-5 with common DPs at high frequency as observed in DPI P BMC s. ASD P BMC s revealed increased proinflammatory cytokine responses with LPS at high frequency with positive correlation between proinflammatory cytokine production with LPS and IFN-γ and TNF-α production against DPs . Such correlation was less evident in DPI P BMC s. Conclusion : Immune reactivity to DPs may be associated with apparent DPI and GI inflammation in ASD children that may be partly associated with aberrant innate immune response against endotoxin , a product of the gut bacteria Clinical ly elevated anxiety is a common , impairing feature of autism spectrum disorders ( ASD ) . A modular CBT program design ed for preteens with ASD , Behavioral Interventions for Anxiety in Children with Autism ( BIACA ; Wood et al. , 2009 ) was enhanced and modified to address the developmental needs of early adolescents with ASD and clinical anxiety . Thirty-three adolescents ( 11 - 15 years old ) were r and omly assigned to 16 sessions of CBT or an equivalent waitlist period . The CBT model emphasized exposure , challenging irrational beliefs , and behavioral supports provided by caregivers , as well as numerous ASD-specific treatment elements . Independent evaluators , parents , and adolescents rated symptom severity at baseline and posttreatment/postwaitlist . In intent-to-treat analyses , the CBT group outperformed the waitlist group on independent evaluators ' ratings of anxiety severity on the Pediatric Anxiety Rating Scale ( PARS ) and 79 % of the CBT group met Clinical Global Impressions-Improvement scale criteria for positive treatment response at posttreatment , as compared to only 28.6 % of the waitlist group . Group differences were not found for diagnostic remission or question naire measures of anxiety . However , parent-report data indicated that there was a positive treatment effect of CBT on autism symptom severity . The CBT manual under investigation , enhanced for early adolescents with ASD , yielded meaningful treatment effects on the primary outcome measure ( PARS ) , although additional developmental modifications to the manual are likely warranted . Future studies examining this protocol relative to an active control are needed ABSTRACT . It is well recognized that delayed " first words " is among the most common presenting symptoms of autistic spectrum disorders ( ASD ) . However , data on earlier language and communication development in children with ASD are limited to retrospective reports from parents and from home videos . In this study , we prospect ively collected parent report data on early communication and language development in 97 infant siblings of children with ASD and 49 low-risk controls . Parents completed the  MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory-Infant Form  at 12 and 18 months . Analysis compared 3 groups defined on the basis of diagnostic assessment at 24 months : ( 1 ) siblings with ASD ( n = 15 ) , ( 2 ) siblings not meeting diagnostic criteria for ASD ( n = 82 ) , and ( 3 ) low-risk controls , none of whom had ASD ( n = 49 ) . Children with ASD showed delays in early language and communication compared with non-ASD siblings and controls . At 12 months , the ASD group was reported to underst and significantly fewer phrases and to produce fewer gestures . At 18 months , they showed delays in their underst and ing of phrases , comprehension and production of single words , and use of gestures . Siblings not diagnosed with ASD also used fewer play-related gestures at 18 months than low-risk controls , even when children with identified language delays were excluded . Overall , this prospect i ve study confirms that delays in communication and language development are apparent early in life in children with ASD , and emphasizes that developmental surveillance should include monitoring for delays in gesture , which may be among the earliest signs of ASD PURPOSE The Preschool Language Scale , Fourth Edition ( PLS-4 ; Zimmerman , Steiner , & Pond , 2002 ) was used to examine syntactic and semantic language skills in preschool children with autism spectrum disorders ( ASD ) to determine its suitability for use with this population . We expected that PLS-4 performance would be better in more intellectually able children and that receptive skills would be relatively more impaired than expressive abilities , consistent with previous findings in the area of vocabulary . METHOD Our sample consisted of 294 newly diagnosed preschool children with ASD . Children were assessed via a battery of developmental measures , including the PLS-4 . RESULTS As expected , PLS-4 scores were higher in more intellectually able children with ASD , and overall , expressive communication was higher than auditory comprehension . However , this overall advantage was not stable across nonverbal developmental levels . Expressive skills were significantly better than receptive skills at the youngest developmental levels , whereas the converse applied in children with more advanced development . CONCLUSIONS The PLS-4 can be used to obtain a general index of early syntax and semantic skill in young children with ASD . Longitudinal data will be necessary to determine how the developmental relationship between receptive and expressive language skills unfolds in children with ASD BACKGROUND Children who show disproportionate difficulty with the pragmatic as compared with the structural aspects of language are described as having pragmatic language impairment ( PLI ) or social communication disorder ( SCD ) . Some children who have PLI also show mild social impairments associated with high-functioning autism or autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) . There is little robust evidence of effectiveness of speech- language interventions which target the language , pragmatic or social communication needs of these children . AIMS To evaluate the effectiveness of an intensive manualized social communication intervention ( SCIP ) for children who have PLI with or without features of ASD . METHODS & PROCEDURES In a single-blind RCT design , 88 children with pragmatic and social communication needs aged 5;11 - 10;8 , recruited from UK speech and language therapy services , were r and omly assigned in a 2:1 ratio to SCIP or to treatment-as-usual . Children in the  SCIP  condition received up to 20 sessions of direct intervention from a specialist research speech and language therapist working with supervised assistants . All therapy content and methodology was derived from an intervention manual . A primary outcome measure of structural language and secondary outcome measures of narrative , parent-reported pragmatic functioning and social communication , blind-rated perceptions of conversational competence and teacher-reported ratings of classroom learning skills were taken pre-intervention , immediately post-intervention and at 6-month follow-up . Analysis was by intention to treat . OUTCOMES & RESULTS No significant treatment effect was found for the primary outcome measure of structural language ability or for a measure of narrative ability . Significant treatment effects were found for blind-rated perceptions of conversational competence , for parent-reported measures of pragmatic functioning and social communication , and for teacher-reported ratings of classroom learning skills . CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATION S There is some evidence of an intervention effect on blind and parent/teacher-reported communication outcomes , but not st and ardized language assessment outcomes , for 6 - 11-year-old children who have pragmatic and social communication needs . These findings are discussed in the context of the increasingly central role of service user outcomes in providing evidence for an intervention . The substantial overlap between the presence of PLI and ASD ( 75 % ) across the whole cohort suggests that the intervention may also be applicable to some verbally able children with ASD who have pragmatic communication needs The purpose of this pilot study was to establish a model for r and omized controlled trial research , identify appropriate outcome measures , and address the effectiveness of sensory integration ( SI ) interventions in children with autism spectrum disorders ( ASD ) . Children ages 6 - 12 with ASD were r and omly assigned to a fine motor or SI treatment group . Pretests and posttests measured social responsiveness , sensory processing , functional motor skills , and social-emotional factors . Results identified significant positive changes in Goal Attainment Scaling scores for both groups ; more significant changes occurred in the SI group , and a significant decrease in autistic mannerisms occurred in the SI group . No other results were significant . The study discusses considerations for design ing future outcome studies for children with ASD Prospect i ve memory ( remembering to carry out an action in the future ) has been studied relatively little in ASD . We explored time-based ( carry out an action at a pre-specified time ) and event-based ( carry out an action upon the occurrence of a pre-specified event )  prospect i ve memory , as well as possible cognitive correlates , among 21 intellectually high-functioning children with ASD , and 21 age- and IQ-matched neurotypical comparison children . We found impaired time-based , but undiminished event-based , prospect i ve memory among children with ASD . In the ASD group , time-based prospect i ve memory performance was associated significantly with diminished theory of mind , but not with diminished cognitive flexibility . There was no evidence that time-estimation ability contributed to time-based prospect i ve memory impairment in ASD Anxiety is common among adolescents with autism spectrum disorders ( ASD ) and may amplify the core social disability , thus necessitating combined treatment approaches . This pilot , r and omized controlled trial evaluated the feasibility and preliminary outcomes of the Multimodal Anxiety and Social Skills Intervention ( MASSI ) program in a sample of 30 adolescents with ASD and anxiety symptoms of moderate or greater severity . The treatment was acceptable to families , subject adherence was high , and therapist fidelity was high . A 16 % improvement in ASD social impairment ( within-group effect size = 1.18 ) was observed on a parent-reported scale . Although anxiety symptoms declined by 26 % , the change was not statistically significant . These findings suggest MASSI is a feasible treatment program and further evaluation is warranted The development of imitation during the second year of life plays an important role in domains of sociocognitive development such as language and social learning . Deficits in imitation ability in persons with autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) from toddlerhood into adulthood have also been repeatedly documented , raising the possibility that early disruptions in imitation contribute to the onset of ASD and the deficits in language and social interaction that define the disorder . This study prospect ively examined the development of imitation between 12 and 24 months of age in 154 infants at familial risk for ASD and 78 typically developing infants who were all later assessed at 36 months for ASD or other developmental delays . The study established a developmental measure of  imitation ability  and examined group differences over time , using an analytic Rasch measurement model . Results revealed a unidimensional latent construct of imitation and verified a reliable sequence of imitation skills that was invariant over time for all outcome groups . Results also showed that all groups displayed similar significant linear increases in imitation ability between 12 and 24 months and that these increases were related to individual growth in both expressive language and ratings of social engagement but not in fine motor development . The group of children who developed ASD by age 3 years exhibited delayed imitation development compared with the low-risk typical outcome group across all time-points , but were indistinguishable from other high-risk infants who showed other cognitive delays not related to ASD
By further separating studies into unisensory and multisensory ( bimodal : audiovisual ) ones , subgroup analysis indicated heterogeneous and unstable effects for unisensory temporal binding in the ASD group , but a more consistent and severe impairment in multisensory temporal integration represented by an enlarged temporal binding window in both clinical groups .
Such multisensory dysfunction is associated with symptoms like hallucinations and impaired social communications .
HighlightsMultisensory temporal dysfunction represented by an extended temporal binding window is a common feature of ASD and SSD.Unisensory temporal acuity is impaired in schizophrenia but may be spared in ASD.Multisensory dysfunction is associated with incoherent perception and communicative deficit that characterize SSD and ASD . &
NA ; Multisensory temporal integration could be compromised in both autism spectrum disorders ( ASD ) and schizophrenia spectrum disorders ( SSD ) and may play an important role in perceptual and cognitive impairment in these two disorders .
This review aim ed to quantitatively compare the sensory temporal acuity between healthy controls and the two clinical groups ( ASD and SSD ) .