Scientific AbstractThe impaired development of joint attention is a cardinal feature of autism. Therefore, understanding the nature of joint attention is a central to research on this disorder. Joint attention may be best defined in terms of an information processing system that begins to develop by 4-6 months of age. This system integrates the parallel processing of internal information about one's own visual attention with external information about the visual attention of other people. This type of joint encoding of information about self and other attention requires the activation of a distributed anterior and posterior cortical attention network. Genetic regulation, in conjunction with self-organizing behavioral activity guides the development of functional connectivity in this network. With practice in infancy the joint processing of self-other attention becomes automatically engaged as an executive function. It can be argued that this executive joint-attention is fundamental to human learning, as well as the development of symbolic thought, socialcognition and social-competence throughout the life span. One advantage of this parallel and distributed processing model of joint attention (PDPM) is that it directly connects theory on social pathology to a range of phenomenon in autism associated with neural connectivity, constructivist and connectionist models of cognitive development, early intervention, activity-dependent gene expression, and atypical ocular motor control.Research on autism is increasingly multidisciplinary (Braunschweig et al.,, 2007;Dawson, 2008). However, there are currently few models of autism that bridge observations between the biological, environmental, and behavioral sciences. Constructivist and connectionist theory on neural and cognitive development may be useful in this regard (for reviews of theory see Elman, 2005;Dosenbach et al

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A consensus has emerged that despite common core features, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has multiple etiologies and various genetic and biological characteristics. The fact that there are likely to be subtypes of ASD has complicated attempts to develop effective therapies. The UC Davis MIND Institute Autism Phenome Project is a longitudinal, multidisciplinary analysis of children with autism and age-matched typically developing controls; nearly 400 families are participating in this study. The overarching goal is to gather sufficient biological, medical, and behavioral data to allow definition of clinically meaningful subtypes of ASD. One reasonable hypothesis is that different subtypes of autism will demonstrate different patterns of altered brain organization or development i.e., different neurophenotypes. In this Commentary, we discuss one neurophenotype that is defined by megalencephaly, or having brain size that is large and disproportionate to body size. We have found that 15% of the boys with autism demonstrate this neurophenotype, though it is far less common in girls. We review behavioral and medical characteristics of the large-brained group of boys with autism in comparison to those with typically sized brains. While brain size in typically developing individuals is positively correlated with cognitive function, the children with autism and larger brains have more severe disabilities and poorer prognosis. This research indicates that phenotyping in autism, like genotyping, requires a very substantial cohort of subjects. Moreover, since brain and behavior relationships may emerge at different times during development, this effort highlights the need for longitudinal analyses to carry out meaningful phenotyping.

Linguistic and cognitive abilities manifest huge heterogeneity in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Some children present with commensurate language and cognitive abilities, while others show more variable patterns of development. Using spontaneous language samples, we investigate the presence and extent of grammatical language impairment in a heterogeneous sample of children with ASD. Findings from our sample suggest that children with ASD can be categorized into three meaningful subgroups: those with normal language, those with marked difficulty in grammatical production but relatively intact vocabulary, and those with more globally low language abilities. These findings support the use of sensitive assessment measures to evaluate language in autism, as well as the utility of within-disorder comparisons, in order to comprehensively define the various cognitive and linguistic phenotypes in this heterogeneous disorder.

The purpose of this study is to describe the educational programs for adolescents with autism (ages 12-16 years) in inclusion and non-inclusion settings as reflected in their Individual Education Plan (IEP) goals, services, and curricular adaptations. Students who were included in general education math and language arts instruction had fewer overall IEP goals, but goals focused more on applied skill development, whereas students in noninclusion had goals addressing primarily rote and procedural skills. For students in both groups, all IEP goals were derived from Kindergarten through fourth grade standards. Likewise, for students in both groups, most IEP goals addressed core symptoms of autism (e.g. communication skills) as opposed to academic skill development, along with fewer overall goals and more curricular adaptations as students entered adolescence. Implications for practitioners are discussed.

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The past 20 years have seen a tremendous increase in the use of peer-directed collaborative group work both in classroom instruction and in assessments to give students an opportunity to learn from each other. Using examples drawn from a program of peer learning in middle school mathematics, this paper identifies a set of helping behaviors that best predict learning in collaborative small groups. Specifically, this paper describes conditions that must be satisfied for helping behavior to be effective and the responsibilities of students seeking help, students giving help, and teachers to make helping productive for learning.

Multiple studies have suggested that autism spectrum disorders seem to increase the risk of overweight and obesity. We examined the pooled prevalence and relative risk of developing overweight or obesity among children with autism spectrum disorders in a systematic review and meta-analysis. We searched PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, and Web of Science databases and subsequently screened the records to identify studies that reported prevalence of overweight and/or obesity in children with ASD and matched groups of neurotypical children. DerSimonian-Laird random-effects meta-analyses were performed to examine pooled prevalence and relative risk of obesity in children with autism spectrum disorders using the "meta" package in R software. Among children with autism spectrum disorders, the prevalence of obesity was 22.2%. Children with ASD had a 41.1% greater risk (P = .018) of development of obesity. Non-Caucasian race, increasing age, female sex, and living in the United States emerged as positive moderators of the association between autism spectrum disorders and prevalence of overweight or obesity.Autism spectrum disorders seem to increase the risk of childhood obesity.Increased awareness of this association may allow the implementation of early interventions to reduce obesity and prevent potential deterioration of quality-oflife in this population.