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Autism spectrum research

Everything we have read on autism spectrum. Each paper is summarised from the full article rather than its abstract, so the limitations are in there too, and the funding wherever the paper declares it.

2,764 PAPERS · PAGE 54 OF 56 · NEWEST FIRST

• SLPOther2026Partner-dependent communication without dynamic adaptation in autism.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceAutistic adults matched non-autistic adults in adjusting communication for a presumed child, but did not reduce those adjustments as evidence showed the child and adult performed equally. Social anxiety groups adapted more consistently.
• OTSLPQualitative2026Eliciting the views of autistic adolescents attending specialist schools on what friendships mean to them.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceAutistic adolescents with complex communication needs described friendships as connections driven by strong emotions, active play with chosen peers, and sometimes close ties to familiar adults. They also asked for space from friends in structured settings.
• SLPOther2026Discrepancies between feeling and expressing: Perceptions of autistic and non-autistic emotional expressions by non-autistic observers.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceAutistic adults reported feeling emotions as strongly as non-autistic adults. Non-autistic observers were less accurate at recognizing happiness in autistic faces, but rated autistic sadness and anger as more intense. Software classified mild autistic faces as more neutral than non-autistic faces.
• SLPCohort2026Quantitative but Not Qualitative Differences: A Longitudinal Analysis of Grammatical Marker Development in Mandarin-Speaking Autistic Children.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchMandarin-speaking autistic children acquired grammatical markers in the same order as typically developing peers, but at a slower pace. Autism severity and initial language ability did not change this sequence. This supports targeting general language skills, as specific grammar instruction may not be needed early on.
• OTSLPMeta-Analysis2026Examining the Relationship Between Social Motivation and Internalizing Symptoms in Autistic People: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchAcross 15 studies, autistic people with lower social motivation reported significantly higher anxiety and depression. The link was strongest for social anxiety. Because the data is cross-sectional, this shows an association, not that low motivation causes mental health difficulties.
• PTOTSLPCohort2026Sleep and activity patterns in autism.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceAutistic adults spent more time sedentary and had less consistent sleep schedules than their non-autistic relatives. Each hour of sedentary time linked to 23.5 minutes less sleep in autistic adults, compared to 17.1 minutes in relatives. Day-to-day variability mattered more than average sleep duration.
• SLPOther2026Associations Between Autistic Adolescents' Biological and Behavioral Characteristics and Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Functioning.Journal of autism and developmental disordersIn 110 autistic adolescents, higher BMI was linked to lower resting heart-rate variability, and higher autism symptoms and adaptive skills were linked to lower sweat-gland responses during a stress task; many other links were not found.
• PTOTSLPCohort2026Urban-Rural Differences and Sex-Specific Cognitive Effects on Autism Symptom Trajectories: A Longitudinal Study of Autistic Children in Taiwan.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchRural autistic children showed steeper increases in social communication difficulties over time than urban peers, despite similar starting points. Higher verbal IQ was linked to fewer social symptoms in girls but not boys. Restricted behaviors remained stable across all groups.
• SLPOther2026Sex-specific metrics for success: Gaps in social word use are bigger for autistic girls than boys.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceNon-autistic girls used more social words than any other group in the study. Autistic girls also used more social words than autistic boys. This suggests that the high social language expectations for girls are a general population trait, not unique to autism.
• PTOTSLPSystematic Review2026Describing the communication of autistic people during experiences of distress: A scoping review.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceAutistic people often lose verbal capacity or withdraw when distressed, relying on behaviour or non-verbal cues instead. Proxy reports frequently miss these communicative attempts, interpreting them as aggression rather than distress signals. First-person accounts reveal a bidirectional cycle where communication failure worsens distress.
• PTOTSLPSystematic Review2026Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) in etiologically diverse developmental conditions: A systematic review.Research in developmental disabilitiesCDIs reliably flag delayed expressive vocabulary in autism and Down syndrome, but standard scores often underestimate ability when children use signs or have low intelligibility. Use longitudinal tracking for progress, not single-timepoint screening, and adapt forms to include gesture.
• SLPCase-Control2026Reduced inter-subject functional connectivity during movies in autism: replicability across cross-national fMRI datasets.Molecular autismAutistic adults showed less similar brain responses to silent movie scenes in visual and attention areas. With sound, temporal-region connections were stronger. Only 16% of these differences replicated across countries.
• SLPMeta-Analysis2026Does the Extreme Male Brain Hypothesis of Autism Apply More to Females Than Males? A Systematic and Meta-Analytic Approach.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchSelf-report empathy and systemizing scores differed more between autistic and non-autistic females than between autistic and non-autistic males. Typical sex differences were smaller among autistic people.
• PTOTSLPQualitative2026Supporting a 'good life' for autistic children: Autistic adults' and parents' perspectives.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceAutistic adults and parents identified four pillars for a 'good life' in autistic children: unconditional acceptance, pursuing personal interests, having autonomy over choices, and sensory-safe environments. They emphasized that social connection and happiness look different for each child, challenging neurotypical norms.
• PTOTSLPSurvey2026Priorities for change for autistic people across Europe.Molecular autismEducation, public awareness, funding, and employment were the top priorities for change across all groups. Autistic people ranked bullying and financial hardship higher than parents or professionals did, while parents prioritised daily living support and early intervention.
• SLPOther2026Conversational Topic Shifts and Topic Maintenance in Autistic and Neurotypical Children.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchAutistic and neurotypical children maintained conversation topics similarly. In this Spanish-speaking sample, autistic children shifted topics more often, and adults rated their shifts as less natural.
• SLPNarrative Review2026Camouflaging and autism: Conceptualisation and methodological issues.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceCamouflaging research is inconsistent in definitions and measurements. The main tool, the CAT-Q, may not distinguish camouflaging from social anxiety or self-presentation. Clinicians should not use it for screening and should consider these other explanations for patient behaviours.
• PTOTSLPQualitative2026How are School-aged Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder Using Digital Media? A Qualitative Study of Families' Lived Experiences.Journal of developmental and behavioral pediatrics : JDBPFamilies described digital media as a double-edged sword. It offers relief, deep interest exploration, and social connection, but creates safety concerns and caregiver guilt. Rules must be highly individualized and flexible, as one-size-fits-all restrictions fail in diverse home and school settings.
• SLPCohort2026Maternal Child-Directed Speech Toward Children With Infantile Spasm or West Syndrome.International journal of language & communication disordersMothers of children with West Syndrome used more emotional exclamations and fewer questions than mothers of typically developing children. This shift toward affective speech may help sustain engagement but could limit opportunities for language learning by reducing referential scaffolding.
• SLPOther2026Large-scale neural network compensation associated with camouflaging in trait autism and its potential mental health costs.Molecular autismIn adults with high autistic traits, frequent social camouflaging linked to stronger brain network connectivity between self-reflection and control systems. This specific neural pattern mediated the link between camouflaging and higher anxiety and depression scores. The study describes an association in healthy adults, not a causal mechanism.
• SLPOther2026Language Subdomains in Children on the Autism Spectrum: Cross-Sectional Study of Morphologically Rich Language.Folia phoniatrica et logopaedica : official organ of the International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP)When matched on vocabulary, children on the autism spectrum did not differ from typically developing children on grammar scores. Vocabulary and grammar rose together in both groups, and vocabulary age was about 2 to 3 months ahead of morphology age.
• SLPCohort2026Personality disorder diagnoses in UK Autistic people: Evidence from a matched cohort study.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceAutistic adults are significantly more likely to receive personality disorder diagnoses than non-Autistic people. This risk is highest for Autistic women, especially those with intellectual disability, where new diagnoses were over eight times more likely.
• PTOTSLPQualitative2026How does 'autistic burnout' feel? A qualitative study exploring experiences of earlier and later-diagnosed autistic adults.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceAutistic adults described burnout as a simultaneous powering down and overactivation of the mind and body. They reported exhaustion, loss of skills like speech and planning, and heightened sensory pain. Later-diagnosed participants faced greater distress from not knowing why they were struggling.
• SLPCohort2026Receptive-Expressive Language Phenotypes in Infants and Toddlers With Autism Features.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchAmong infants and toddlers with autism symptoms, over 75% had an atypical receptive-expressive language profile. Children whose expressive language was relatively stronger than receptive language showed slower expressive growth, while other developmental features did not separate the groups.
• OTSLPQualitative2026Barriers and Innovations Towards Accessing an Autism Diagnosis in Rural Northern Ontario: A Qualitative Study.Child: care, health and developmentFamilies and clinicians in rural Northern Ontario described autism diagnosis delays from low autism awareness, confusing referral systems, travel and technology limits, and staffing shortages. Shared information, community visits and culturally responsive assessment were described as facilitating access.
• SLPCase-Control2026Reduced task adaptation and contextual awareness in autistic adults during facial emotion recognition: evidence from mixed-effects modeling and automated facial analysis.Molecular autismAutistic adults recognised facial emotions less accurately than non-autistic adults (80.85% vs 87.82%) and improved less as the task went on. They also gained less than non-autistic adults when the correct answer stood out more clearly from the other two options.
• OTSLPQualitative2026Good intentions are not enough: Autistic perspectives on structural ableism within the walls of our classrooms.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceAutistic students said what stopped them speaking up at school was not their own lack of skill but the system: autism erased from lessons, inflexible staff, punishment for being different, isolation, hidden rules and top-down authority. Teaching self-advocacy alone will not fix that.
• SLPCohort2026Parenting Stress and Stressful Life Events Among Caregivers of Toddler Siblings of Autistic and Non-Autistic Children.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchCaregivers of toddlers who have an autistic older sibling reported more parenting stress than caregivers of toddlers with only non-autistic siblings, and more stressful life events since the toddler's birth. Differences were moderate, and the life-event finding comes from just 47 caregivers.
• OTSLPSystematic Review2026Systematic Review of Group-Based Emotion Regulation Interventions for Autistic Children's Socio-Emotional Competence.OTJR : occupation, participation and healthGroup programmes teaching autistic children to recognise and manage emotions may improve social skills, emotional competence and empathy. All 17 studies reported gains, but several had no comparison group and the studies were too varied to pool, so the effect is uncertain.
• OTSLPCohort2026Reciprocal Associations Between Parental Anxiety/Depression and Emotional/Behavioral Difficulties in Autistic Children Following Their Diagnosis.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchParents' anxiety and depression and autistic children's emotional and behavioural difficulties did not predict each other over the three years after diagnosis. At diagnosis 55.2% of mothers and 42.7% of fathers had clinically significant symptoms, and 61.3% of children were in the clinical range.
• OTSLPCohort2026Maternal And Paternal Differences in Parental Stress and Children's Autistic Features Among Parents of Preschool Autistic Children.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceChild behaviour problems went with higher stress for both mothers and fathers of autistic preschoolers. Mothers' stress also went with social communication, repetitive behaviour and adaptive difficulties; fathers' did not. Mothers from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and more educated mothers, reported less stress.
• SLPQualitative2026A qualitative evaluation of cognitive-behavioural therapy components for social anxiety in autistic adults: Lived experiences from a modified group program.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceAutistic adults found this group CBT useful, but said cognitive restructuring misfired when their social fears reflected real exclusion rather than distorted thinking. Over 95% valued concrete social strategies. About a quarter said exposure tasks amplified their distress instead of reducing it.
• OTSLPSurvey2026Growing-up autistic: Sharing autistic children's experiences and insights.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceMost of these 136 autistic children felt it was okay to be autistic at home (91%) but not around teachers (26.8%) or friends (40.2%). Only 4.5% felt they definitely had the words to describe being autistic, and 45.1% said they masked.
• SLPCase-Control2026Development and Validation of a Short Version Eye-Tracking Paradigm for the Screening and Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Qatar.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchA four-minute eye-tracking test told apart children who already had an autism diagnosis from mostly typically developing controls, and its scores rose with autism severity on ADOS-2 and parent report. Accuracy was measured after diagnosis, not in unselected screening.
• SLPCase-Control2026Investigation of Swallowing Performance and Family Impact in Children With Speech and Language Delay.International journal of language & communication disordersChildren with speech and language delay scored worse than typically developing peers on mouth structure and movement tests, and their families reported lower quality of life. Food and drink intake was no different, but parents did report more swallowing problems.
• OTSLPCohort2026Predictors of Parent Engagement in Part C Early Intervention for Autism: The Role of Single Parenthood and Initial Motivation.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceSingle parents took a less active part in early intervention sessions than parents living with a partner, and parents who started more motivated practiced at home more often. Nothing measured predicted attendance, and the engagement measures did not track together.
• SLPOther2026Oral narrative discourse in schoolchildren with Autism Spectrum Disorder.CoDASChildren with autism and average or above-average reasoning, already in therapy and from better-off families, retold and understood a story about as well as typically developing peers. Their weak spot was retelling the story's essential facts, and they used fewer nouns and prepositions.
• SLPOther2026Analysis of play in children aged 2 to 4 with developmental language disorder.CoDASOf 37 children with developmental language disorder, 35 played at least one level below what is expected for their age. Better play went with better fine motor skills, but not with language, cognition, income or gestational age.
• SLPCase-Control2026Autistic Children With Speech Onset Delay Show Reversed Bias in Spectral Versus Temporal Auditory Processing.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchAutistic children with delayed speech needed a longer silent gap to notice a break in a sound, but could detect smaller changes in pitch than typically developing peers. In the autistic group, sharper pitch detection went with better language and nonverbal scores.
• SLPCase Report2026Communication development of a child with autism, the son of deaf parents, using alternative communication: a case report.CoDASOne non-speaking 5-year-old with autism, whose deaf parents use sign language, improved on a parent-completed behaviour checklist and a clinician-rated communication assessment over nine months of therapy with a picture book paired with sign language. One child cannot show a treatment works.
• PTOTSLPOther2026Associations Between Comorbidities, Developmental Status, and Disease Severity in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study in China.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchIn this Chinese cohort, 96.6% of 1279 autistic children had at least one other diagnosed condition: 87.3% intellectual or developmental disability, 45.3% food refusal, 16.9% insomnia. Children with these conditions tended to score higher for autism severity.
• SLPOther2026A novel context-discrepancy assessment of impression management facets in autistic and non-autistic adults: an initial validation.Molecular autismWhen social demands rose to a mock job interview, autistic adults reported more inauthenticity and self-monitoring; non-autistic adults did not. Effort and anxiety rose for both groups, with anxiety rising more steeply in autistic adults.
• SLPSurvey2026The Signposting Questionnaire for Autism-2 (SQ-A-2): using input from autistic adults to inform questionnaire development.Molecular autismRewriting autism questionnaire items with autistic adults' input made them work better: the adapted wording separated autistic adults from non-autistic adults more sharply than the original wording, and autistic participants preferred it. No cut-off score or accuracy testing yet.
• OTSLPSystematic Review2026Priorities and Perspectives Regarding Goals and Outcomes of Support for Autistic Children Under 12 Years: A Systematic Review.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceThe goals that autistic adults, families and professionals ranked highest for autistic children were communication, mental well-being, autonomy and community inclusion. Reducing autistic traits, neurotypical social skills training and academic targets ranked lowest. Professionals still leaned towards social skills and spoken language.
• SLPMeta-Analysis2026Autistic Traits and Camouflaging: A Meta-Analysis.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceThe more autistic traits someone reports, the more they report camouflaging to fit in. That link was moderate, held across ages and genders, and was even stronger in people without a diagnosis. Clinicians who rely on what they observe may miss it.
• SLPQualitative2026Community Perceptions of the Causes of Autism and Help-Seeking Responses: A Multi-Site Qualitative Study Across Northern Uganda.Autism : the international journal of research and practiceMost people in three Northern Ugandan districts could not say what causes autism, and many attributed it to witchcraft, curses or God's punishment, with mothers blamed. Families tried prayer and traditional healers before hospital, and some children were abused, neglected or killed.
• SLPPilot2026Social Adaptation to Change in Peer Behavior Before and After a Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial of a Theatre-Based Intervention for Adults With Autism.Journal of autism and developmental disordersAutistic adults already adapted their behaviour to a bored rather than interested conversation partner before treatment, and the theatre programme did not change that. Depression did not predict who changed. The role-play test may be too easy for this group.
• SLPCohort2026Trajectories of Mother-Child Closeness and Child Behavioural and Emotional Outcomes in Families of Children With Intellectual Disabilities.Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDRMothers who reported a closer relationship with their child also reported more prosocial behaviour from that child across three time points. Closeness and behaviour problems were linked only at the first time point, not over time, once other family factors were accounted for.
• SLPSystematic Review2026Auditory Sensitivity in Autism: A Systematic Review of Mismatch Negativity and Mismatch Field Responses.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism ResearchAutistic children often showed smaller brain responses to unexpected sounds than non-autistic peers, especially for changes in tone frequency, but other studies found larger responses or none, and adult findings were mostly null. Timing differences were inconsistent and tracked language and sensory profile more than diagnosis.
• OTSLPSystematic Review2026Exploring Vocational Training Interventions for Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Scoping Review.Occupational therapy internationalVocational help for autistic adults in these 26 studies falls into three groups: supported employment built on real internships, targeted skills training such as mock interviews, and support depending on employers and ongoing coaching. Measures vary too much to compare and most studies are small.