1. Derosier ME, Swick DC, Davis NO, McMillen JS, Matthews R. {{The Efficacy of a Social Skills Group Intervention for Improving Social Behaviors in Children with High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders}}. {J Autism Dev Disord} (Nov 2)

This study tested the efficacy of a new social skills intervention, S ocial S kills GR oup IN tervention-High Functioning Autism (S.S.GRIN-HFA), designed to improve social behaviors in children with high functioning autism spectrum disorders. Fifty-five children were randomly assigned to S.S.GRIN-HFA treatment (n = 27) or control (i.e., traditional S.S.GRIN intervention; n = 28). Examination of the direction and magnitude of change in functioning revealed that children who participated in S.S.GRIN-HFA exhibited significantly greater mastery of social skill concepts compared to children in the control group. Parents of S.S.GRIN-HFA group participants reported an improved sense of social self-efficacy, whereas parents of control participants reported a decline. The advantages of a specialized intervention such as S.S.GRIN-HFA, designed specifically for children with high functioning autism spectrum disorders, are discussed.

2. Estes A, Rivera V, Bryan M, Cali P, Dawson G. {{Discrepancies Between Academic Achievement and Intellectual Ability in Higher-Functioning School-Aged Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder}}. {J Autism Dev Disord} (Nov 2)

Academic achievement patterns and their relationships with intellectual ability, social abilities, and problem behavior are described in a sample of 30 higher-functioning, 9-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Both social abilities and problem behavior have been found to be predictive of academic achievement in typically developing children but this has not been well studied in children with ASD. Participants were tested for academic achievement and intellectual ability at age 9. Problem behaviors were assessed through parent report and social functioning through teacher report at age 6 and 9. Significant discrepancies between children’s actual academic achievement and their expected achievement based on their intellectual ability were found in 27 of 30 (90%) children. Both lower than expected and higher than expected achievement was observed. Children with improved social skills at age 6 demonstrated higher levels of academic achievement, specifically word reading, at age 9. No relationship was found between children’s level of problem behavior and level of academic achievement. These results suggest that the large majority of higher-functioning children with ASD show discrepancies between actual achievement levels and levels predicted by their intellectual ability. In some cases, children are achieving higher than expected, whereas in others, they are achieving lower than expected. Improved social abilities may contribute to academic achievement. Future studies should further explore factors that can promote strong academic achievement, including studies that examine whether intervention to improve social functioning can support academic achievement in children with ASD.

3. Kanne SM, Gerber AJ, Quirmbach LM, Sparrow SS, Cicchetti DV, Saulnier CA. {{The Role of Adaptive Behavior in Autism Spectrum Disorders: Implications for Functional Outcome}}. {J Autism Dev Disord} (Nov 2)

The relationship between adaptive functioning and autism symptomatology was examined in 1,089 verbal youths with ASD examining results on Vineland-II, IQ, and measures of ASD severity. Strong positive relationships were found between Vineland subscales and IQ. Vineland Composite was negatively associated with age. IQ accounted a significant amount of the variance in overall adaptive skills (55%) beyond age and ASD severity. Individuals with ASD demonstrated significant adaptive deficits and negligible associations were found between the level of autism symptomatology and adaptive behavior. The results indicate that IQ is a strong predictor of adaptive behavior, the gap between IQ and adaptive impairments decreases in lower functioning individuals with ASD, and older individuals have a greater gap between IQ and adaptive skills.

4. Loth E, Gomez JC, Happe F. {{Do High-Functioning People with Autism Spectrum Disorder Spontaneously Use Event Knowledge to Selectively Attend to and Remember Context-Relevant Aspects in Scenes?}}. {J Autism Dev Disord} (Nov 2)

This study combined an event schema approach with top-down processing perspectives to investigate whether high-functioning children and adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) spontaneously attend to and remember context-relevant aspects of scenes. Participants read one story of story-pairs (e.g., burglary or tea party). They then inspected a scene (living room) of which some objects were relevant in that context, irrelevant (related to the non-emphasized event) or neutral (scene-schema related). During immediate and delayed recall, only the (TD) groups selectively recalled context-relevant objects, and significantly more context-relevant objects than the ASD groups. Gaze-tracking suggests that one factor in these memory differences may be diminished top-down effects of event schemas on initial attention (first ten fixations) to relevant items in ASD.

5. McAlonan GM, Li Q, Cheung C. {{The Timing and Specificity of Prenatal Immune Risk Factors for Autism Modeled in the Mouse and Relevance to Schizophrenia}}. {Neurosignals} (Nov 2)

Autism is a highly heritable condition, but there is strong epidemiological evidence that environmental factors, especially prenatal exposure to immune challenge, contribute to it. This evidence is largely indirect, and experimental testing is necessary to directly examine causal mechanisms. Mouse models reveal that prenatal immune perturbation disrupts postnatal brain maturation with alterations in gene and protein expression, neurotransmitter function, brain structure and behavioral indices reminiscent of, but not specific to, autism. This likely reflects a neurodevelopmental spectrum in which autism and schizophrenia share numerous genetic and environmental risk factors for difficulties in social interaction, communication, emotion processing and executive function. Recent epidemiological studies find that early rather than late pregnancy infection confers the greater risk of schizophrenia. The autism literature is more limited, but exposures in the 2nd half of pregnancy may be important. Mouse models of prenatal immune challenge help dissect these observations and show some common consequences of early and late gestational exposures, as well as distinct ramifications potentially relevant to schizophrenia and autism. Although nonspecificity of immune-stimulated mouse models could be considered a disadvantage, we propose a broadened perspective, exploiting the possibility that advances made investigating a target condition can contribute towards the understanding of related conditions.

6. Varga S. {{Pretence, Social Cognition and Self-Knowledge in Autism}}. {Psychopathology} (Nov 2);44(1):46-52.

This article suggests that an account of pretence based on the idea of shared intentionality can be of help in understanding autism. In autism, there seems to be a strong link between being able to engage in pretend play, understanding the minds of others and having adequate access to own mental states. Since one of the first behavioral manifestations of autism is the lack of pretend play, it therefore seems natural to investigate pretence in order to identify the nature of the central impairment in question. In mainstream theories, this has been identified as an impaired ‘theory of mind module’ or ‘mentalizing’ capacities. This paper points to some difficulties encountered by such accounts and – by drawing on research by Tomasello and Rakoczy – seeks to develop an alternative account of pretence and social cognition.