Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders最新文献

Purpose: Academic achievement in autistic children is highly variable: some experience significant difficulties, others perform on par with their peers. While the preschool home learning environment (HLE) supports academic development in neurotypical children, it remains unclear what this environment looks like for autistic preschoolers, how it differs from their peers, and how it relates to child characteristics and academic skills.

Methods: This systematic review searched Web of Science, PubMed, ERIC and Scopus, following PRISMA guidelines. It provides a comprehensive overview of 43 studies on the HLE of autistic preschoolers, exploring differences with peers, associations with child characteristics and academic skills, and outcomes of HLE-focused interventions.

Results: Overall, parents of autistic preschoolers reported engaging in a range of learning activities, having many books available and holding positive beliefs about the HLE. While some differences with peers emerged, these often disappeared once children's language skills were taken into account. Child characteristics appeared to influence the HLE. However, evidence on associations between the HLE and academic skills was limited and mixed. Notably, only one study examined home numeracy, and no studies investigated the longitudinal impact of the preschool HLE on academic outcomes. Intervention studies showed promising effects on parent and child behaviours, though long-term effectivity and methodological rigour remain concerns.

Conclusion: Autistic preschoolers generally experience rich HLEs, with limited differences from peers. Future research should clarify how the HLE influences learning development in the short and long term, consider the role of child characteristics, and address the notable gap in home numeracy research.

Purpose: The World Health Organization's Caregivers Skills Training (WHO-CST) program has been culturally adapted and implemented across diverse low-resource regions as options to promote developmentally disabled children's development. However, beyond initial feasibility and acceptability, little is known about the long-term sustainability of the program in lower-middle income countries, such as India. The current study explored stakeholders' experiences of sustaining implementation of the WHO-CST in India.

Methods: Twenty-eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with organizational heads (n = 9), course facilitators (n = 10), and caregivers of children with developmental disabilities (n = 9). Participants had engaged with the WHO-CST across 10 community-based organizations. Using an iterative and inductive qualitative method, four overarching themes were generated.

Results: 'Bridging the Gap' recognized ways in which stakeholders gained knowledge and skills. 'Always about Logistics and Time' acknowledged the existing implementation hurdles, while sustainability was promoted by 'Support and Investment' in local adaptations and strategic resource allocation. 'Nothing, Nothing was in Vain' revealed that, irrespective of current implementation status, the WHO-CST has positively impacted communities.

Conclusion: Despite its positive reception, long-term sustainability of the WHO-CST program remains a challenge in India. For the WHO-CST to sustain and have an enduring impact, there is a necessity for phased training approaches, systemic capacity building, integration within large-scale public health systems and enabling policy shifts to enhance long-term viability and accessibility.

Purpose: Research on Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) trends and risk factors, particularly relating to by intellectual disability (ID), is limited. This study examined the incidence, sociodemographic risk factors and co-occurrence conditions of ASD, including categorization by ID, using national registers.

Methods: This study included singletons born in Finland between 1998 and 2015 who had been diagnosed with ASD by 2018, with cases categorized into ASD with ID and ASD without ID. We divided the study sample into four birth cohorts (1998-2002, 2003-2007, 2008-2011 and 2012-2015) to analyze changes in incidence over time. Cases (n = 10,171) were matched with controls (n = 49,391) by age, gender, and birthplace. Associations between sociodemographic risk factors and ASD were analyzed using conditional logistic regression. Co-occurrence with other psychiatric disorders was examined only in the oldest cohort (1992-2002).

Results: The cumulative incidence of ASD without ID increased from 0.52 to 0.89% by age 10, while ASD with ID remained stable at 0.17%. Several socio-demographic risk factors were associated with both groups, while parental immigration status was only associated with cases with ID. A total of 59.0% of cases had one co-occurring psychiatric disorder, with a significant difference in prevalence between the groups (p < .05).

Conclusion: The increase in diagnosed ASD, particularly without ID, recorded by specialized services in Finland between 1998 and 2018 may reflect a real increase in incidence, or changes in diagnostic criteria and practices, improved mental health services, greater public and professional awareness or treatment seeking behavior.

Purpose: The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children in the Netherlands is relatively high at 2.8%. Given the significant impact of an ASD diagnosis on a child's life, there is a clear need for adequate autism services. This study aimed to identify current diagnostic procedures, available treatments, and interventions for children with ASD under 18 years old in the Netherlands.

Methods: A scoping review was conducted following PRISMA guidelines. Searches were performed in SmartCat, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar databases, covering studies from 2004 to 2024. After the selection process, 32 studies were included for analysis.

Results: The Netherlands has developed several guidelines for the preferred diagnostics of ASD, but full adherence remains inconsistent, potentially leading to delays in diagnosis. Available interventions primarily focus on skill training, and there is growing evidence supporting alternative therapies such as music therapy.

Conclusion: To improve outcomes for children with ASD, the Netherlands should prioritize early detection to facilitate timely interventions and enhance well-being. Additionally, longitudinal studies are essential to validate the effectiveness of existing treatments.

Purpose: Recommendations concerning the language used to describe autism center primarily around preferences for person-first language (PFL; e.g., person with autism) or identity-first language (IFL; e.g.., autistic person). Empirical research on this topic has recently proliferated, yet there is no clear consensus. In this study, we systematically reviewed prior research on the autistic community's language preferences.

Methods: Our search generated 2483 articles. Nineteen studies (N = 6350) quantitatively assessed autistic people's perspectives of autism language terms. We extracted data regarding most preferred terms and terms deemed acceptable for use.

Results: All studies were conducted online. Fourteen assessed preferred terminology; 10 found that more participants preferred IFL than PFL, though there was also considerable PFL endorsement (4-39% of participants) in these studies. Two studies that found a preference for PFL over IFL were conducted in Dutch. When able to choose "no preference/either" (6 studies), 4-37% of participants chose this option. Seven studies assessed acceptable terms; IFL terms were endorsed as acceptable by ~ 40-97% of participants, PFL terms by 5-53%, and "on the spectrum" by 8-45%. Across studies, participants were not representative of the entire autism spectrum (e.g., likely few participants with intellectual disability).

Conclusion: Study results vary widely and suggest no consensus as to whether individuals with autism prefer IFL or PFL, neither across nor necessarily even within cultures and languages. We present several considerations for members of the autism community (e.g., researchers, clinicians, etc.) regarding use of PFL and IFL, with the ultimate goal of ensuring individual preferences are respected.

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate key linguistic markers for distinguishing children with developmental language disorder (DLD) from their typically developing (TD) peers and to develop an artificial intelligence (AI)-based, explainable screening app.

Method: Thirty children aged 7-10 (15 with DLD and 15 TD) completed a verbal assessment battery measuring vocabulary production, morphosyntactic abilities, and sentence repetition. Based on these data, a random forest classifier was trained on synthetically generated datasets to develop an online, explainable screening app.

Results: Bayesian analyses provided strong evidence for significant group differences across all three linguistic measures. The screening app, when validated on unseen cases, demonstrated high concordance with clinical diagnoses made by speech-language pathologists, indicating its reliability in identifying children with DLD.

Conclusion: These findings support the diagnostic value of specific linguistic indicators in identifying DLD and demonstrate the feasibility of an AI-driven screening solution. The app's interpretability and scalability offer practical advantages for detection, particularly in under-resourced settings, by reducing subjectivity and time demands in the diagnostic process. Moreover, this study highlights the potential of synthetic data augmentation to overcome limitations associated with small clinical datasets, thereby enhancing the robustness and generalizability of AI-based screening apps.

Purpose: The neural mechanisms underlying facial emotion processing (FEP) difficulties in autistic people remain unclear. This Seed-based d Mapping with Permutation of Subject Images (SDM-PSI) meta-analysis examined brain activity during FEP in autistic people.

Method: We systematically searched three databases (PubMed, Web of Science, PsycINFO) for fMRI studies (published up to September 2, 2025) comparing DSM-diagnosed autistic people with non-autistic people (NAP) during FEP, and eligible studies reported whole-brain coordinates. A convergence analysis of the contrasts between the ASD and NAP groups was performed. Subgroup analyses and meta-regressions were conducted to explore potential sources of heterogeneity.

Results: A total of 25 fMRI studies, comprising 632 autistic people and 568 non-autistic people, were included in this meta-analysis. The results revealed a widespread convergence of decreased activation in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), middle temporal gyrus (MTG), fusiform gyrus (FG), cerebellum (Cb), and insula during FEP in autistic people at an uncorrected threshold level with P < 0.005. Among these, only the IFG passed FWE correction with P < 0.05. Subgroup exploratory analyses based on task type suggested that both explicit and implicit tasks may elicit a convergence of decreased activation along the ventral stream (IFG, FG, MTG), while explicit tasks may additionally involve convergence of increased activation in visual processing regions (lingual gyrus and inferior longitudinal fasciculus) at an uncorrected threshold level with P < 0.005. In addition, subgroup exploratory analysis of age showed autistic minors may recruit more visual resources compared to adults at an uncorrected threshold level with P < 0.005, and the exploratory regression analysis showed that higher IQ may be associated with decreased neural activity in the superior occipital gyrus (SOG) at an uncorrected threshold level with P < 0.005.

Conclusion: Dysfunctional brain activity during facial emotion processing in autistic people was most robustly reflected in the convergence of decreased activation in the IFG, particularly the left IFG-op. Exploratory analyses further suggested that other aberrant brain activations may be focused on the ventral stream. In addition, exploratory subgroup analyses indicated that explicit tasks and minors might recruit multiple visual systems, potentially as a compensatory strategy.