Autism: New Directions in Research and Education presents the results of research on autism and the experiences of the families of autistic children, as well as the trials and tribulations of a psychologist working with an autistic child. The successes and failures of educational programs are discussed, followed by a detailed and helpful account on the value and limitations of a method of teaching language through simultaneous use of signs and speech. This monograph consists of 25 chapters and opens with an overview of the various behaviors likely to be exhibited by autistic persons, along with the theory of autism. It then considers a person's presentation about stuttering in relation to early infantile autism. An important point emphasized throughout this work is that an autistic child can be helped only if a serious attempt is made to see the world from his point of view, so that the adaptive function of much of his peculiar behavior can be understood in the context of his handicaps. The following chapters explore individual differences in the acquisition of sign language by severely communicatively-impaired children; the autistic child's disturbances of perception, speech, and language; and the nature and relevance of simultaneous communication with autistic children. This book should prove useful to clinicians, researchers, parents, teachers, and students.

It has been three years since many countries around the world were sent into a nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. As the disease infected the lungs of many people across the world, there were other adverse effects that came with not only the disease itself but the aftermath of the lockdowns. Those living with pre-existing conditions saw the COVID-19 pandemic affect them in different ways to those who were otherwise healthy. This Research Topic aims to highlight evidence on how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected and continues to affect autistic individuals and to provide insights into research and interventions on how this can be tackled going forwards, in the hope that the research presented will translate to best practice applications in clinical and public health settings.

As the pastPresident ofthe Israel Society forAutism, it gives me great pleasure to c- gratulate Professor Schopler and his colleagues on the publication of their new book concerning the relationship between scientific research and treatment. When we in Israel began our specifically structured education program for young children with autism, our work was based on slim to scarceknow-how andinformation, and with no experience whatsoever. Whatever information we could gather was mostly from psychological educational centers in the U.S. One of the most important and significant connections was established between the TEACCH program of North Carolina, led and conducted by the two important scholars, Professor Eric Schopler and Professor Lee Marcus, and our Israel Society for Autism. During our many encounters, seminars, and conferences, we profited enormously from all their accumulated expertise and scientific research, while perhaps it was also an important experience for them to see how a young society with very limited means was eventually shaping its educational program and arriving at some excellent results. We, ofcourse, have the highest esteem for Governor Hunt who has been following this program with so much attention and support, and we still remember his visit to Israel with distinguished representatives of the TEACCH Program. I wish the new book every success. I know it will be an enormous contribution to all those who must cope with a difficult and painful issue—autism—for whom there is no end to the need for research and continuously improving methods of care and education.

This book first explains autism, its prevalence, and some conventional intervention techniques, and it then describes how virtual reality technology can support autism intervention and skills training. The approaches and technologies covered include immersive virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality. The tasks covered include emotion recognition, affective computing, teaching communication skills, imparting literacy skills, training for imitation skills, and joint attention skills. Most of the chapters assume no prerequisite knowledge of autism or virtual reality, and they are supported throughout with detailed references for further investigation. While the author is an engineer by profession, with specialist knowledge in robotics and computer-based platforms, in this book she adopts a user perspective and cites many real-life examples from her own experience. The book is suitable for students of cognitive science, and researchers and practitioners engaged with designing and offering technological assistance for special needs training.

This book focuses on the emerging and expanding areas of research on ASD and their potential to lead to better diagnosis and more effective therapies. These areas include innovative and integrative approaches to genetic/genomic analyses and investigations of epigenetic contributions, including the role of noncoding RNAs, DNA methylation, alternative splicing, RNA editing, and faulty translation in gene regulation and expression, metabolic and immune dysfunction, co-morbidities, as well as hormonal and gene-environment interactions that may increase risk for ASD.Within each chapter, experts review cutting-edge research as well as provide their perspective on the future of research in their respective areas, including the challenges involved and the types of studies or advances that are necessary to move the field forward to achieve predicted translational goals.Contributors: Argel Aguilar-Valles, Evdokia Anagnostou, Emma Ashwin, Bonnie Auyeung, Kelly M Bakulski, Simon Baron-Cohen, Margaret L Bauman, Donna Betts, Chad A Bousman, Daniel B Campbell, Manuel F Casanova, Bhismadev Chakrabarti, Gursharan Chana, Abha Chauhan, Ved Chauhan, Jessica DeWitt, Keith W Dunaway, Alal Eran, Ian P Everall, M Daniele Fallin, Richard E Frye, Piers Gillett, Matthew Ginsberg, Christos G Gkogkas, Rhonda J Greenhaw, Simon G Gregory, Elena L Grigorenko, Feng Gu, Rebecca Harmer, Martha Herbert, Valerie W Hu, Karen L Jones, Petra Kern, Arkady Khoutorsky, Rebecca Knickmeyer, Isaac S Kohane, Louis M Kunkel, Janine M LaSalle, Michael V Lombardo, Deepali Mankad, Marvin Natowicz, Laura Nicholls, Christos Pantelis, Natalia Rakhlin, Radhika Ramadas, Daniel A Rossignol, Tewarit Sarachana, Stephen W Scherer, Gabriela Schmulevich, Ayten Shah, Frank R Sharp, Alison B Singer, Efstratios Skafidas, Estate M Sokhadze, Nahum Sonenberg, Boryana Stamova, Zohreh Talebizadeh, Renee Testa, Judy Van de Water, Irina Voineagu, Daniel Williams, Ryan K C Yuen, Daniela Zantomio.

Resource added for the Foundations of Teacher Education 105222 and Paraeducator (Instructional Assistant) 315222 programs.​