Reported Barriers and Facilitators for Autistic Individuals, Persons with Other Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, and Their Caregivers to Receive the COVID-19 Vaccine: A Pilot Study.

Autistic individuals and persons with other intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) may experience challenges in social engagement, sensory processing, and behavior rigidity. This population is more likely to face barriers to successful preventative healthcare, including vaccines, compared to neurotypical peers. Autistic individuals and persons with other IDD may be at greater risk for COVID-19 infection due to sensory dysregulation that interferes with mitigation such as wearing masks, and challenges in social communication that impose difficulties in understanding and adhering to prevention measures.

Prefrontal Cortex Responses to Social Video Stimuli in Young Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting individuals worldwide and characterized by deficits in social interaction along with the presence of restricted interest and repetitive behaviors. Despite decades of behavioral research, little is known about the brain mechanisms that influence social behaviors among children with ASD. This, in part, is due to limitations of traditional imaging techniques specifically targeting pediatric populations.

The Reach and Accuracy of Information on Autism on TikTok.

Purpose: Although social media platforms have made information about autism more accessible to the general public, concerns have been raised about the unfiltered nature of the content they host. In the current study, we examined the reach and accuracy of videos providing informational content about autism on TikTok, a popular social media platform.

Methods: We examined engagement indicators (including views and "likes") for the TikTok videos associated with the #Autism hashtag.

Secret Agent Society: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Transdiagnostic Youth Social Skills Group Treatment.

Group programs are key for targeting social skills (SS) for children with developmental disorders and/or mental illness. Despite promising evidence regarding efficacy of group treatments, there are several limitations to current research regarding generalizability and effectiveness across diagnoses. This randomized control trial assessed whether the Secret Agent Society (SAS) group program was superior to treatment as usual (TAU) in improving social-emotional functioning for children with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and/or anxiety.

Using Parent Target Problem Narratives to Evaluate Outcomes in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

This paper examines the reliability and validity of parent target problems (PTPs) in a multi-site randomized controlled trial of parent training (PT) versus psychoeducation (PEP) in children (150 boys, 19 girls; mean age 4.7 ± 1.2 years) with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and disruptive behavior.

Better working memory for non-social targets in infant siblings of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

We compared working memory (WM) for the location of social versus non-social targets in infant siblings of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (sibs-ASD, n = 25) and of typically developing children (sibs-TD, n = 30) at 6.5 and 9 months of age. There was a significant interaction of risk group and target type on WM, in which the sibs-ASD had better WM for non-social targets as compared with controls.