Autistic individuals' experience of the inclusion process is poorly understood, especially that of female pupils. This study retrospectively explored the views of autistic women who were included in general schools throughout childhood and adolescence, from elementary to high school, to understand their unique experiences and learn more about…

Naturalistic observation of seven autistic students (2-16 years old) and their families revealed unexpectedly frequent social interaction and low levels of ritualistic/stereotypic behavior. (CL)

A reaction to Sowell's book raises issues about behaviorally based diagnoses, stressing that developmental disorders are behaviorally defined dimensions along a continuum with no crisp partition between normalcy and disorders. It sees developmental disorders as usually the expression of extremely complex, multigenic influences on brain…

This study examined Autism Diagnostic Interviews Revised (ADI-R) data for 69 autistic subjects from multiplex (MP) families (with more than one autistic member) and 88 autistic subjects from singleton (SP) families (with only one autistic member). Multivariate analysis revealed no differences between verbal or nonverbal MP and SP groups for ADI-R…

Two groups of seven autistic children (4-16 years old) wore auditory trainers for specified times. Videotapes were coded for three attentional states (normal, withdrawn, attacking), for verbalization and signing, and for appropriate and acceptable behaviors. Results demonstrated a decrease in time spent withdrawn and increases in signing and in…

This study compared 29 females with Turner syndrome and 21 females with fragile X syndrome (ages 6-22) on a videotaped role-play interaction with 34 females in a comparison group. Three of eight behavioral measures of social skills differentiated the participant groups. Fragile-X subjects required more time to initiate interactions and Turner…