Childhood autism

  • Young Child Engaged with a Mobile Device, Exploring Digital Content

    Validation of a Mobile App for Remote Autism Screening in Toddlers

    A 2025 multi-site study led by Dawson and colleagues evaluated a mobile app called “SenseToKnow,” designed for accessible, early autism screening in toddlers. The results suggest digital approaches as a promising way to make early identification more accessible, objective, and equitable for all families.

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  • Catherine Lord

    Autism: What Matters Most – From Assessment to Intervention 

    Join Professor Catherine Lord, Distinguished Professor at UCLA’s Semel Institute, pioneering developer of the gold-standard ADOS and ADI-R autism diagnostic tools, and recipient of the International Society for Autism Research’s Lifetime Achievement Award, for an exclusive masterclass on autism assessment and intervention.

    Event type
    Masterclass
    Location
    LIVE STREAM
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  • Autism Acceptance Week 2024

    Breaking Down Barriers and Improving Understanding – Autism Acceptance Week 2024

    This World Autism Acceptance Week (2 April to 8 April 2024), we encourage you to explore the FREE learning opportunities available on our website, and to share with your networks.

    Together we can work towards ‘sharing best evidence, improving practice’ to help create a society that works for autistic children and young people.

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  • rd-bridge-autistic-girls-talk-differently

    Do autistic girls talk differently about social groups?

    New data, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, suggest that pronoun use during natural conversation might inform us about clinically meaningful social function.

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  • rd-bridge-autistic-girls-better-comms-skills

    Do autistic girls have better communication and interaction skills than autistic boys?

    There is ongoing debate as to whether autism spectrum disorder (ASD) differentially affects males and females. Several meta-analyses have found little difference between males and females with ASD in terms of social communication and interaction skills. However, such analyses have often relied on diagnostic instruments such as the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition 2 that may not be sensitive to how autism presents in females. What’s more, many have been based on global scores, that reflect overall social communication and interaction skills, which could miss subtler differences in specific domains.

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  • Cognitive inflexibility contributes to both externalising and internalising difficulties in ASD

    Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) commonly experience internalising and externalising symptoms, but the underlying cognitive mechanisms are unclear. In their latest study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Ann Ozsivadjian and colleagues examined the role of three cognitive factors that might contribute to these difficulties. Specifically, they hypothesized that intolerance of […]

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  • Are autistic behaviours a trait or a state of anorexia nervosa?

    Anorexia nervosa (AN) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) seem to co-occur more frequently than would be expected by chance.1,2 Yet because most studies investigating the nature of this co-occurrence have used a retrospective design, where the data are prone to recall bias, we don’t know whether the elevation of autistic traits in AN is present from childhood or rather from AN onset.

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  • toddler playing with toy

    Is brain circuitry linked with early symptoms of autism spectrum disorder?

    Researchers in San Diego, USA, have studied the relationship between brain network connectivity and emerging autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptoms in toddlers aged 17-45 months with (n=24) or without (n=23) ASD.

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  • young boy in super hero costume

    ASD – Autism Spectrum Disorder

    Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental disorder that affects how people perceive the world and interact with others. People on the autism spectrum may have difficulties with social communication, social interaction and restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviours, activities or interests.

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