Children who have outgrown their autism diagnosis tend to correct themselves mid-sentence and use unusual phrases when narrating stories, according to a small study published 6 February in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
The risk of certain autism spectrum disorders is highest in firstborn children and declines in each additional sibling born to the same mother, reports a large Finnish study published 28 January in Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology.
Adding to the complications of autism, overweight and obese children with the disorder are prone to a host of other troubles, including depression, anxiety and sleep problems, reports a study published 2 February in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Aripiprazole, one of two autism drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat autism symptoms, may be no more effective than a placebo after a few months.
More than 70 percent of autism studies don’t record the ethnicity of their participants, and fewer than half of those that do analyze the impact of the data, reports a review published 4 February in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Babies later diagnosed with autism are slow to start babbling and do less of it once they get started than controls do, reports a study published 31 January in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
A rigorous new study confirms that boys with autism tend to score higher on tests of spatial and analytical abilities than on those for verbal skills. But the gap decreases by the time they reach 10 years of age.
Teenagers with autism or other psychiatric disorders are far less likely to exercise or play team sports than their typical peers, reports a Norwegian study published 22 January.
Two large Scandinavian studies confirm the long-standing theory that older men have a higher risk of fathering children with autism, but they disagree on how a mother’s age drives risk of the disorder.
A shortage of trained doctors, lack of awareness and long waiting lists for specialized care delay diagnosis and treatment of autism in many low- and middle-income countries, report two new studies.