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This lived experience-led scoping review explores the evidence base related to eating disorders/disordered eating behaviours in Autistic trans and gender diverse (TGD) people. This review highlights the currently available data on eating disorder prevalence rates, comparisons with allistic and cisgender groups, drivers and maintenance factors, the relationship between eating disorders and gender-affirming medical care, and treatment outcomes in this population.
LiL' STEPS (Language development & Intervention Lab's SupporTing Early social-communication and language by Promoting caregiver Sensitive responsiveness) is a novel, manualized, caregiver-mediated early support program developed in India and delivered online for infants at elevated familial likelihood for autism. The program has been found to be feasible and acceptable. The preliminary efficacy of the LiL' STEPS program, which remains to be evaluated, was assessed in this study using a feasibility randomized controlled trial design.
Evidence suggests that the earlier supports are provided to young Autistic children, the better the overall outcomes. Supports have typically only been available after an autism diagnosis but with increased knowledge about early developmental trajectories, clinical supports can now be offered prediagnosis for infants showing early autism features and/or those with a family history of autism.
A reliable and valid diagnostic classification system is pivotal for guiding clinical decision-making, facilitating rigorous and reproducible research findings, informing population-level health planning and resource allocation, and promoting well-being.
Autistic children experience significantly higher rates of anxiety compared to nonautistic children. The precise relations between autism characteristics and anxiety symptoms remain unclear in this population. Previous work has explored associations at the domain level, which involve examining broad categories or clusters of symptoms, rather than the relationships between specific symptoms and/or individual characteristics. We addressed this gap by taking a network approach to understand the shared structure of autism characteristics and anxiety symptoms.
Social media allows users to connect with others’ experiences and points of view, with TikTok being the fastest-growing platform worldwide. Highly viewed videos related to neurodiversity on TikTok have an increasing role in understanding and acceptance of neurodivergent individuals.
Young children diagnosed with autism experience high rates of co-occurring anxiety, with uncertainty-related concerns commonly reported. This randomized controlled trial investigated an 8-week parent-mediated group anxiety intervention, “Coping with Uncertainty in Everyday Situations” (CUES-Junior©).
A comprehensive understanding of specific factors contributing to variability in responsiveness of children with autism to interventions is paramount for making evidence-based clinical and policy decisions. This meta-analysis examined child and family characteristics, as well as intervention design factors, associated with outcomes of behavioral interventions for children with autism.
Emerging evidence suggests that observers tend to form less favorable first impressions toward autistic people than toward non-autistic people. These negative impressions may be associated with immediate behavioral responses, as well as long-lasting attitudes toward those being observed that may negatively impact their psychosocial wellbeing.
Manifestations of insistence on sameness and circumscribed interests are complex, with individuals varying considerably, not only in the types of behaviours they express, but also in terms of a behaviour's frequency, intensity, trajectory, adaptive benefits, and impacts.