Three distinct categories of traits best characterize autism, according to a study of more than 6,000 children.

Scientists are finding new ways to test cognition in autistic individuals who speak little or not at all.

Place your autism center in the community you serve, remove barriers to care, cast a wide net for autism signs, and do as much as possible in the first visit: These principles can help build a lifelong relationship with the community.

Toddlers with strong language skills continue to outperform their peers as they grow up, whereas those with poor skills lag tend to lag behind.

Some autism traits look the same across cultures, and they could form the basis of a global screening tool.

The proportion of studies that include people with a severe form of autism has fallen over the past three decades.

Autistic people who have trouble speaking or moving often do poorly on standard tests of intelligence. Newer methods promise to uncover their abilities — and improve our understanding of autism itself.

Parents may speak to their autistic children using fewer words and less complex sentences than do parents of typical children, which in turn shapes the children’s language skills.

A monkey-sized jacket embedded with motion sensors — similar to technology used to animate creatures in movies — is helping researchers develop the common marmoset as a model for studying human social behavior.

Babies eventually diagnosed with autism learn to detect speech sounds later than their typical peers do.