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.  

A five-minute online questionnaire can diagnose autism with as much accuracy as the so-called gold standard diagnostic tests, according to unpublished findings presented Tuesday at the Autism Consortium 2011 symposium in Boston.

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

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.

A new study finds that Dutch children picked up by the police for minor offenses score higher than controls on a questionnaire measuring traits of autism.

Boys who have autism-like social deficits at 2 years of age retain about the same level of social impairment when they reach age 20.

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

The six diagnostic measures used to distinguish Asperger syndrome from high-functioning autism do not identify a unique subset of people, according to an analysis of 69 studies, published 2 August in Autism.

Collapsing the three core domains of autism — impairments in social interaction, communication deficits, and repetitive and restricted behaviors — into two makes no difference in the accuracy of diagnosis, according to a statistical analysis published 20 August in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Researchers can use the Manchester Inventory for Playground Observation, a questionnaire that rates children’s interactions with their peers, to reliably measure social skills in children with autism.