INSAR Presentations

Background: Converging evidence indicates that toddlers and early school age youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have larger brains than Typically Developing Controls (TDC). It remains unclear, however, if this enlargement persists beyond early development or whether there is later a period of arrested brain growth in ASD such that group differences disappear by adolescence or adulthood. Unfortunately, a majority of studies on this topic may be underpowered to detect the expected effects.

Background:
Deficits in nonverbal communication are a required symptom for diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). DSM-5 stresses that nonverbal communication in ASD is often characterized by qualitative differences, in addition to reduced frequency. These qualitative differences have been inadequately described, in part because qualitative features of behavior are by definition challenging to quantify. Here we examine one qualitative feature of nonverbal communication in ASD: motor behavior during spontaneously produced co-speech hand gestures.

Background: There is increasing recognition of the need to develop treatments for adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to improve their social functioning, a key factor in adults’ employment, relationships, and overall quality of life (Howlin et al., 2013; Shattuck et al., 2012).  However, little is known about the relative level of impairment in various behavioral domains underlying social functioning, or about the relationship among these behavioral domains in adults with ASD.

Background: Peer competence and friendships are major developmental achievements in middle-childhood and are related to emotional well-being and academic skills. Peer relationships in preschool provide opportunities to develop the skills required for these achievements. By school-age, children with ASD demonstrate fewer reciprocal friendships and poorer peer competence than same-age peers. However, little is known about peer relationships in preschool-age children with ASD.

Background. Recent research using home-based digital audio recordings at 9 months of age suggests that some children at high-familial risk for ASD are “hyper-vocalizers,” producing more vocalizations than low-risk peers (Swanson et al., in press). More vocalizations are associated with higher rates of conversational turn-taking, potentially contributing to a “social feedback loop” that is beneficial to children’s social development (Warlaumont, 2014).

Background:  Extensive research has shown that physical exercise produces positive impacts on physical and psychological health indicators across numerous populations.  With regards to psychological health, evidence suggests reduced stress and improved executive functioning as a result of exercise.  As a clinical intervention, exercise has a number of advantages, including feasibility of implementation by staff at various levels of training, or by patients themselves, and completion at low cost to both the individual and society.  Thus, exercise intervention has great poten