Here is a roundup of news and research for the week of 3 January.

Motor differences are more relevant than has historically been appreciated for understanding, assessing and supporting people on the spectrum.

As 2021 comes to a close, Spectrum recaps some of the biggest trends in autism science this year: studies of sex differences, noncoding regions of the genome and points of convergence, as well as efforts to improve screening and participatory research.

On 26 January, Catherine Lord, distinguished professor of psychiatry and education at the University of California, Los Angeles, and Tony Charman, chair of clinical child psychology at King’s College London in the United Kingdom, will speak about the Lancet commission’s recommendations and the use of the term ‘profound autism.’

For Spectrum’s fourth annual book, we offer a guide to prevalence estimates.

Researchers requested the retraction of their study linking low vitamin A levels to sleep troubles in autistic children after discovering “fundamental errors” in their data.

In this edition of By the Numbers, we discuss how translation alters a screening tool’s accuracy, the closing racial gap in autism prevalence numbers, and the preponderance of autism without intellectual disability.

In this week’s Community Newsletter, we look at a study that asks just how much therapists know about autism, as well as reactions to a highly controversial stem cell trial.

Here is a roundup of news and research for the week of 13 December.

Most working scientists aren’t optimistic about their career prospects, according to a Nature survey; expecting passion may be detrimental in academia; and there are new funding opportunities on the horizon, with upcoming deadlines.