1. Steiner AM, Goldsmith TR, Snow AV, Chawarska K. {{Practitioner’s Guide to Assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorders in Infants and Toddlers}}. {J Autism Dev Disord};2011 (Nov 6)
Recent advances in clinical research have made it possible to diagnosis autism spectrum disorders (ASD) as early as the second year of life. The diagnostic process early in development is often complex, and thus, familiarity with the most recent findings in clinical assessment instruments, early symptoms, and developmental trajectories of young children with autism is essential. This paper provides an empirically based practitioner’s guide to issues and concerns related to early diagnosis of ASD in very young children, documentation of the course and patterns of ASD symptomatology in infants and toddlers, and current understanding in the field of diagnostic outcomes of children identified in the first and second year of life.
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2. Williams DL. {{Making connections between the brain and behavior: Invited commentary on « Disrupted cortical connectivity theory as an explanatory model for autism spectrum disorders » by R.K. Kana, L.E. Libero, and M.S. Moore}}. {Phys Life Rev};2011 (Oct 28)
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3. Foss-Feig JH, Heacock JL, Cascio CJ. {{Tactile responsiveness patterns and their association with core features in autism spectrum disorders}}. {Res Autism Spectr Disord};2012 (Winter);6(1):337-344.
Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are often associated with aberrant responses to sensory stimuli, which are thought to contribute to the social, communication, and repetitive behavior deficits that define ASD. However, there are few studies that separate aberrant sensory responses by individual sensory modality to assess modality-specific associations between sensory features and core symptoms. Differences in response to tactile stimuli are prevalent in ASD, and tactile contact early in infancy is a foundation for the development of social and communication skills affected by ASD. We assessed the association between three aberrant patterns of tactile responsiveness (hyper-responsiveness, hypo-responsiveness, sensory seeking) and core symptoms of ASD. Both sensory and core features were measured with converging methods including both parent-report and direct observation. Our results demonstrate that for the tactile modality, sensory hypo-responsiveness correlates strongly with increased social and communication impairments, and to a lesser degree, repetitive behaviors. Sensory seeking was found to correlate strongly with social impairment, nonverbal communication impairment, and repetitive behaviors. Surprisingly, tactile hyper-responsiveness did not significantly correlate with any core features of ASD. This differential association between specific tactile processing patterns and core features provides an important step in defining the significance of sensory symptoms in ASD, and may be useful in the development of sensory-based approaches for early detection and intervention.
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4. Pandolfi V, Magyar CI, Dill CA. {{An Initial Psychometric Evaluation of the CBCL 6-18 in a Sample of Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders}}. {Res Autism Spectr Disord};2012 (Jan);6(1):96-108.
Individuals with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often present with co-occurring emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). The Child Behavior Checklist 6-18 (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) is an EBD measure that contains several norm-referenced scales derived through factor analysis of data from the general pediatric population. The psychometric properties of this widely used and well-researched measure have not been evaluated in samples of youth with ASD. This study evaluated the CBCL’s internal structure, scale reliability, criterion-related validity, and diagnostic accuracy using archival data from a well-characterized sample of youth with ASD (N = 122). Confirmatory factor analyses supported the unidimensionality of the CBCL’s syndrome scales and its Internalizing-Externalizing factor structure. Significance tests indicated that many scales discriminated between two subgroups: a group of individuals with ASD+EBD and a group with ASD alone. Diagnostic accuracy analyses indicated that the CBCL had good sensitivity but low specificity for detecting co-occurring disorders. Results supported the use of the CBCL in conjunction with other clinical data when assessing for EBD in youth with ASD.
