Toddlers with autism who have larger-than-normal heads are also taller and weigh more than controls, according to a study published in October in Archives of General Psychiatry.

Two studies published in the past month highlight the challenges in balancing the accuracy of autism diagnosis with cost-effectiveness and speed.

Over the past 30 years, autism research pioneer Fred Volkmar says he has learned that researchers should be humble when assigning meaning to autism behavior, and seek to translate their findings into useful applications.  

Growing up bilingual doesn’t impair language skills in children with autism, according to two studies in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Teenagers with milder forms of autism withdraw socially in adolescence, even as some symptoms associated with the disorder wane.

Individuals who have autism and dysmorphology comprise a distinct subgroup within the disorder, says geneticist Judith Miles. 

Duplications and deletions of genetic regions linked to autism are rare in individuals referred for genetic testing, but occur at a higher rate than in the general population.

Individuals who have multiple children with autism have more severe social and communication deficits than either controls or those who have only one child with autism.

Researchers have optimized an early social screening questionnaire to distinguish autism from other developmental disabilities in preschool-aged children.

By comparing the DNA of thousands of children who have developmental disabilities to that of controls, researchers have identified numerous mutations likely to contribute to disease.