A 20-minute test enlists parents in gauging a toddler’s social development by showing them a video of how a typically developing child acts.

Mutations in the gene DYRK1A underlie a type of autism marked by an unusually small head. The new work expands the breadth of symptoms included under the autism umbrella.

A new study is the first rigorous test of a controversial idea: that the everyday interactions between caregiver and child can shape the course of autism.

Rushed doctors and lack of culturally appropriate screening tools are boosting autism diagnoses in India.

Grad students and postdocs prove why basic science matters, and an outbreak sends a sobering message.

Names such as autism, schizophrenia and intellectual disability are ‘umbrella’ terms that muddy the search for the true cause of an individual’s symptoms, says Eric London. He plans to come up with an alternative diagnostic scheme for developmental disabilities over the next two years.

Getting to a diagnosis of autism or another neurodevelopmental disorder is a long and frustrating experience for some families — especially when it comes to finding the underlying genetic cause. DNA sequencing could ease this arduous journey.

Small pieces of RNA restore the expression of a key gene missing in Angelman syndrome and offer the promise of a highly specific cure, researchers reported Monday in Nature.

Each child with autism is different from the next. One approach rapidly gaining momentum makes sense of this diversity by grouping children together based on their genetics, then looking for patterns in their symptoms. The long-term aim: personalized treatments for each subtype of autism.

Varying the number of copies of a single autism-linked gene modulates social behavior and aggression in mice, according to unpublished results presented yesterday at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C.