Many children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) participate in social skills or Theory of Mind (ToM) treatments. However, few studies have shown evidence for their effectiveness. The current study used a randomized controlled design to test the effectiveness of a 16-week ToM treatment in 8-13 year old children with ASD and normal IQs (n = 40). The results showed that, compared to controls, t...

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders often exhibit difficulties with reciprocal social conversation, engaging in limited verbal exchanges, even when language structures are intact. This study employed a multiple baseline design to examine the effectiveness of a self-management intervention targeting (1) on-topic responsiveness to a conversational partner; (2) expansion of the conversation...

It is common to administer measures of autistic traits to those without autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) with, for example, the aim of understanding autistic personality characteristics in non-autistic individuals. Little research has examined the extent to which measures of autistic traits actually measure the same traits in the same way across those with and without an ASD. We addressed this ...

Data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care were examined to determine how children's experiences in child care were related to peer competence at 24 and 36 months of age, after controlling for the effects of family and child characteristics. Peer competence was assessed using mother and caregiver ratings as well as observations of children w...

In light of the steady rise in the prevalence of students with autism, this study examined the definition of autism published by state education agencies (SEAs), as well as SEA-indicated evaluation procedures for determining student qualification for autism. We compared components of each SEA definition to aspects of autism from two authoritative sources: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Me...

Legislation mandates that all children, including children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) be taught to read in ways that are consistent with reading research, and target the five components of evidence-based reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension strategies. The purpose of this review is to synthesize the literature on reading instr...

The self-presentational behaviour of 43 6- to 12-year-old children with high functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASD) and normal intelligence and 43 matched comparisons was investigated. Children were prompted to describe themselves twice, first in a baseline condition and then in a condition where they were asked to convince others to select them for a desirable activity (self-promotion)....