This study examined an insufficiently studied predictor of functional language, social motivation, in a group of 87 young children with autism spectrum disorder. Participants (age 14-31 months at the start of the study) were assessed at four times over 24 months. We tested total and indirect associations between early social motivation and later…

Trajectories of expressive language development are highly heterogeneous in autism. Yoder et al. found that parental responsiveness, child response to joint attention, child communicative intent and consonant inventory were unique predictors of expressive language growth in minimally verbal preschoolers 16 months later (n = 87). This study applied…

Background: School-based interventions can result in profound social, behavioral, and academic improvement for students with autism, but teachers rarely implement them. It is important to understand why this occurs and use this information to increase the use of evidence-based practices. Toward this goal, 2 proof-of-construct studies demonstrate…

The increased prevalence of autism in the United States (1 in 54 youth) requires educators to implement evidence-based practices (EBPs). However, it is unclear which EBPs, if any, general and special education teachers and paraeducators are commonly trained to use or whether they consistently use those EBPs to support the inclusion of students…

Intentional communication has previously been identified as a value-added predictor of expressive language in preverbal preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder. In the present study, we sought to identify value-added predictors of intentional communication. Of five theoretically-motivated putative predictors of intentional communication…

Aims: This study sought to investigate the predictors of spontaneous Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) use in a naturalistic school setting. Method: The study recruited 44 students (36 boys and eight girls), aged between 6 to 18 years and their teachers (26 teachers and two teaching assistants). Teaching staff completed measures of…

With growing numbers of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) entering post-secondary institutions, strategies are needed to facilitate the social integration of these students. The goal of this study was to examine the role of various factors in university students' acceptance of, and intention to volunteer with, a peer with ASD.…

This study used the Theory of Planned Behaviour to explore the attitudes, behavioural intentions and behaviour of 318 mainstream primary school children in an urban East London borough towards peers with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Pupils were presented with a vignette about a hypothetical peer with ASD then completed self-report…

To what extent do children with autism (AD) versus typically developing children (TD) rely on attentional and intentional cues to learn words? Four experiments compared 17 AD children (M age = 5.08 years) with 17 language- and 17 mental-age-matched TD children (M ages = 2.57 and 3.12 years, respectively) on nonverbal enactment and word-learning…