The California-based company’s phone application for autism diagnosis is not as far along as initial reports suggested.

From an app to diagnose autism to a crowdsourced project to map its prevalence, Dennis Wall is brimming with ambitious ideas. But his execution of these ideas leaves something to be desired, his critics say.

Two new parent questionnaires could help clinicians identify autism in babies and in members of racial or ethnic minority groups.

People with mutations in SHANK3 have milder features than do those missing a chunk of DNA that includes the gene.

More boys than girls have autism; diagnostic biases and genetic factors may explain the skewed sex ratio.

Girls with an autism diagnosis have more severe impairments in social communication than boys with the diagnosis.

A widely used test for autism misses some children with delays in motor, social and communication skills.

A patent on variants in an autism gene is unlikely to hold up in court, but may still hinder research, some experts say.

Many children eventually diagnosed with autism lose social skills between 18 months and 3 years of age. But few parents notice this trend.