Measuring the association between behavioural services and outcomes in young children with autism spectrum disorder.

Background: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) receive a wide range of services.

Aims: To examine the association between behavioural services received by children with ASD between ages 2 and 5 years and outcomes during primary school years.

Methods: A total of 414 preschool-aged children diagnosed with ASD were enrolled at five Canadian sites and were assessed within four months of diagnosis (T1), six months later (T2), 12 months later (T3), at school entry (T4), and then annually (T5-T8) to 11 years of age.

Developmental cascades between insistence on sameness behaviour and anxiety symptoms in autism spectrum disorder.

Autistic children experience high rates of anxiety. Insistence on sameness behaviour (IS) is a core feature of autism that appears correlated with anxiety severity. The objective of this study was to examine the longitudinal relations between anxiety and IS in autistic children using a developmental cascade model.

Middle-childhood executive functioning mediates associations between early-childhood autism symptoms and adolescent mental health, academic and functional outcomes in autistic children.

Background: Executive functioning (EF) varies in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is associated with clinical symptoms, academic, and adaptive functioning. Here, we examined whether middle-childhood EF mediates associations between early-childhood autism symptoms and adolescent outcomes in children with ASD.

Methods: The Pathways in ASD Cohort comprising children recruited at the time of ASD diagnosis (at 2-4 years-of-age) and followed prospectively across eight subsequent timepoints over ~10 years was used.

Trajectories of Symptom Severity in Children with Autism: Variability and Turning Points through the Transition to School.

This study examined the trajectories of autistic symptom severity in an inception cohort of 187 children with ASD assessed across four time points from diagnosis to age 10. Trajectory groups were derived using multivariate cluster analysis. A two trajectory/cluster solution was selected.

Co-occurring trajectories of anxiety and insistence on sameness behaviour in autism spectrum disorder.

Background: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have increased susceptibility to anxiety disorders. Variation in a common ASD symptom, insistence on sameness behaviour, may predict future anxiety symptoms.

Aims: To describe the joint heterogeneous longitudinal trajectories of insistence on sameness and anxiety in children with ASD and to characterise subgroups at higher risk for anxiety.