Community Perspectives on Psychological Assessment Reports for Autistic Young Adults.

Purpose: Clinicians rarely solicit community feedback on psychological assessment reports. This study addresses this knowledge gap to: (1) improve the usefulness of reports for patients and families, (2) increase access to needed services, and (3) make reports accessible for autistic people and their families.

Methods: An autistic researcher and a non-autistic researcher jointly conducted qualitative interviews with autistic young adults, caregivers, and a service provider.

Measurement invariance of the PROMIS emotional distress and subjective well-being domains among autistic and General Population adolescents.

Purpose: Quality of life (QoL) is identified as a clinical and research priority by the autistic community. Researchers have the responsibility to ensure that instruments used to measure QoL do so reliably and accurately among autistic participants.

Methods: Our study evaluated measurement invariance of Emotional Distress (Depression, Anxiety, Anger, Psychological Stress) and Subjective Well-Being (Life Satisfaction, Positive Affect, and Meaning & Purpose) scales of the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) among groups of autistic (N=140, n per scale=132-140) and general population (N=1,224, n per scale=406-411) teenagers (14-17 years).

Measurement matters: A commentary on the state of the science on patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) in autism research.

High quality science relies upon psychometrically valid and reliable measurement, yet very few Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) have been developed or thoroughly validated for use with autistic individuals. The present commentary summarizes the current state of autism PROM science, based on discussion at the Special Interest Group (SIG) at the 2022 International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) Annual Meeting and collective expertise of the authors. First, we identify current issues in autism PROM research including content and construct operationalization, informant-structure, measure accessibility, and measure validation and generalization.

Combating stigma in autism research through centering autistic voices: a co-interview guide for qualitative research.

As autism has gained increased attention in the past few decades, autistic advocates have adopted the phrase "Nothing about us without us," illustrating the idea that autistic people should be centered in all conversations regarding autism. However, in a large portion of autism research, autistic people are still not meaningfully engaged throughout the research process, leading to continued stigma in research through biased methods. Thus, stigma about autism influences not only the content of autism research, but the ways in which neurotypical people conduct research alongside (or without) autistic people, ultimately resulting in less valid conclusions or research that actively harms the autistic community.

Examining the Latent Structure and Correlates of Sensory Reactivity in Autism: A Multi-site Integrative Data Analysis by the Autism Sensory Research Consortium.

Background Differences in responding to sensory stimuli, including sensory hyperreactivity (HYPER), hyporeactivity (HYPO), and sensory seeking (SEEK) have been observed in autistic individuals across sensory modalities, but few studies have examined the structure of these "supra-modal" traits in the autistic population. Methods Leveraging a combined sample of 3,868 autistic youth drawn from 12 distinct data sources (ages 3-18 years and representing the full range of cognitive ability), the current study used modern psychometric and meta-analytic techniques to interrogate the latent structure and correlates of caregiver-reported HYPER, HYPO, and SEEK within and across sensory modalities. Bifactor statistical indices were used to both evaluate the strength of a "general response pattern" factor for each supra-modal construct and determine the added value of "modality-specific response pattern" scores (e.

Brain Signatures of Early and Late Neural Measures of Auditory Habituation and Discrimination in Autism and Their Relationship to Autistic Traits and Sensory Overresponsivity.

Sensory differences are included in the DSM-5 criteria of autism for the first time, yet it is unclear how they relate to neural indicators of perception. We studied early brain signatures of perception and examined their relationship to sensory behaviors and autistic traits. Thirteen autistic children and 13 Typically Developing (TD) children matched on age and nonverbal IQ participated in a passive oddball task, during which P1 habituation and P1 and MMN discrimination were evoked by pure tones.

Using percentiles in the interpretation of Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System scores: Guidelines for autism.

The objectives of this study were to (1) demonstrate the application of percentiles to advance the interpretation of patient-reported outcomes and (2) establish autism-specific percentiles for four Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) measures. PROMIS measures were completed by parents of autistic children and adolescents ages 5-17 years as part of two studies (n = 939 parents in the first study and n = 406 parents in the second study). Data from the first study were used to develop autism-specific percentiles for PROMIS parent-proxy sleep disturbance, sleep-related impairment, fatigue, and anxiety.

A Preliminary Study Characterizing Subcortical and Cortical Auditory Processing and Their Relation to Autistic Traits and Sensory Features.

This study characterizes the subcortical auditory brainstem response (speech-ABR) and cortical auditory processing (P1 and Mismatch Negativity; MMN) to speech sounds and their relationship to autistic traits and sensory features within the same group of autistic children (n = 10) matched on age and non-verbal IQ to their typically developing (TD) peers (n = 21). No speech-ABR differences were noted, but autistic individuals had larger P1 and faster MMN responses. Correlations revealed that larger P1 amplitudes and MMN responses were associated with greater autistic traits and more sensory features.

Pathways of perceptual primacy: ERP evidence for relationships between autism traits and enhanced perceptual functioning.

Autistic individuals show enhanced perceptual functioning on many behavioral tasks. Neurophysiological evidence also supports the conclusion that autistic individuals utilize perceptual processes to a greater extent than neurotypical comparisons to support problem solving and reasoning; however, how atypicalities in early perceptual processing influence subsequent cognitive processes remains to be elucidated. The goals of the present study were to test the relationship between early perceptual and subsequent cognitive event related potentials (ERPs) and their relationship to levels of autism traits.

Choices, challenges, and constraints: a pragmatic examination of the limits of mental age matching in empirical research.

The work of Ed Zigler spans decades of research all singularly dedicated to using science to improve the lives of children facing different challenges. The focus of this article is on one of Zigler's numerous lines of work: advocating for the practice of mental age (MA) matching in empirical research, wherein groups of individuals are matched on the basis of developmental level, rather than chronological age. While MA matching practices represented a paradigm shift that provided the seeds from which the developmental approach to developmental disability sprouted, it is not without its own limits.