Individuals with a duplication of a chromosomal region associated with autism and intellectual disability are at higher risk for low birth weight, restricted eating leading to extreme thinness, and smaller-than-average head size.
Autism studies tend to focus on one part of the spectrum, often excluding those who also have other conditions such as anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder or intellectual disability. The result, some experts say, is piecemeal findings that don’t fit together to generate a whole picture.
Roughly one-quarter of individuals with Dravet syndrome, a syndromic form of epilepsy that starts in infancy, also have autism, according to a study published 25 May in Epilepsy and Behavior.
Adults with autism who have high intelligence quotients (IQ) are better at identifying the direction of biological motion than are those with lower IQ scores, according to a study published 3 May in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Early interventions for preschoolers who have autism are effective when included alongside standard curricula in mainstream settings, according to two studies published in April.
Three new studies analyzing genetic data from families in which just one child has autism have found the strongest evidence yet that rare new mutations contribute to the disorder.
Autism is diagnosed based on the severity and variety of its symptoms. This makes it very difficult to diagnose and easy to confuse with other disorders, such as language delay and intellectual disability, cautions Isabelle Rapin.
The first comprehensive autism study in South Korea has found that the prevalence of the disorder is more than double the number in the United States.
Two large studies published in the past two months have found that traits linked to autism are widely distributed in the general population. Although about 1 in 100 children is diagnosed with autism, up to 30 percent of people may have at least one of the traits associated with the disorder.