Some individuals may compensate for their underlying social cognitive vulnerabilities, therefore exhibiting adaptive real-world social behavior through enhanced attentional mechanisms despite underlying social cognitive challenges. From a developmental psychopathology framework, adaptive behaviors vary dimensionally in the community and across development to promote compensation. Yet, compensation in the broader community of children without categorical clinical diagnoses has not yet been studied. Moreover, the extent to which compensation demonstrates stability versus change is unknown. This study examines childhood social compensation longitudinally in a community-ascertained sample (N = 315) of 7–17 year-old (M = 12.15, SD = 2.97) children (33% non-white, 44% female). Compared to children with equally poor emotion recognition but substantially more real-world social behavior challenges, high compensators demonstrated better attentional alerting (d = 0.81, p < 0.001) without the “cost” of internalizing symptoms. Results showed both stability and instability in compensation group membership over time, with the high compensation group more likely to have unstable classification relative to the no compensation group (OR = 0.26, p = 0.001). Taken together, this study clarifies the processes underlying social compensation in the community and suggests a developmental psychopathology perspective is valuable in understanding how compensation develops across the lifespan. Such work has the potential to inform practices and policies that support social adaptation and promote resilience.

The goal of this article is to provide a balanced assessment of the significance autism has for the scientific study of language. While linguistic profiles in autism vary greatly, spanning from a total absence of functional language to verbal levels within the typical range, the entire autism spectrum is robustly characterized by lifelong disabilities in intersubjective communication and persistent difficulties in adopting the perspective of other people. In that sense, autism constitutes a unique profile in which linguistic competence is dissociated from communication skills. Somewhat paradoxically, autism is often mentioned to underscore the importance of mind reading for language use and of intersubjective communication for the emergence of language. Yet experimental studies on pragmatics in autism indicate that many pragmatic processes unfold without adopting one's conversational partner's perspective. Moreover, the patterns of language acquisition and learning in autism represent a strong challenge to the central role constructionist theories assign to socio-communicative skills. Data on autism thus force a reconsideration of the a priori conceptual boundaries on language learnability that shape the foundational debates between constructionist and nativist linguistic theories.

In his target article, ‘Autism, constructionism, and nativism’, Kissine (2021) argues that data from autism should be taken into consideration in the debate about L1 acquisition. This paper responds to Kissine's piece by pointing out several of its underlying assumptions and suggesting directions for future research on the topic. Traditional framings of autism as a deficit have recently been challenged in favor of an identity-based approach, the neurodiversity paradigm, which suggests that autistic speech should not be measured in terms of its resemblance to nonautistic speech and that literature on intercultural miscommunication may offer insights into autistic communication. There are some indications that distinct autistic discourse practices may be identifiable in communities of practice, and studies on autistic literacy could benefit from considering the theoretical perspectives found in literature on multimodality and translanguaging. Finally, research on language acquisition might be strengthened by the incorporation of holistic neurocognitive theories about autistic minds.

Despite policy calling for compulsory education in China, many children with autism are not in school. This article examines the establishment of autism-related non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in China to meet needs not being met by the state. We focus on the background and motivation in founding and running these NGOs, after first considering the broader context of state decentralization and NGOs roles in supplementing welfare needs in reforming societies, and the educational policy context of China. This study used mixed methods, including questionnaires with open-ended and limited choice questions, and follow-up discussion email. The goals of NGO leaders—more than 50% of whom are parents of children with autism—are to make up for where government implementation of educational policy is insufficient; help others and advocate for inclusion in society; and do meaningful work. Implications from these findings are discussed.

The constructionist approach argues that communication is central to language learning, language use, and language change. We argue that the approach provides a useful perspective on how autistic children learn language, as it anticipates variable outcomes and suggests testable predictions. First, a reduced ability and interest in tracking the attention and intentions of others should negatively impact early language development, and a wealth of evidence indicates that it does. Second, and less discussed until recently, a hyperfocus on specifics at the expense of generalizations, common among people on the spectrum, should also negatively impact language development, and recent evidence suggests this is also the case. Pace Kissine's 2021 target article, it is unsurprising that children can learn some second language from watching videos, and it is unclear how an appeal to ‘innate’ language-specific knowledge could explain the range of outcomes of individuals on the autism spectrum.

This article defends a new type of preferential hiring. Rather than compensating groups for past or present employment-related discrimination, it seeks to ensure that groups with disproportionate unemployment rates that are due significantly – but not necessarily wholly – to their members having relatively narrow competencies, such as autistic individuals and people with hearing loss, ADHD and lower education levels, are prioritized for jobs that match their abilities. After defending such competency-based preferential hiring based on its benefits for persons with narrower competencies and for societies more broadly, I address several criticisms, including concerns that this approach may be stigmatizing.

Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people show different trajectories after gender transition. While some continue to transition, others detransition (DT), that is, stop or reverse the process. Both populations experience poor mental health, but no study has compared whether they have different psychological profiles and needs. This exploratory study compared TGD and DT participants in terms of psychopathological symptoms, personality variables, and the possible presence of eating disorders (ED) and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A total of 29 TGD participants (M age = 28.28, 72.4% female at birth) and 21 DT participants (M age = 29.19, 66.7% female at birth) completed the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), the Sick-Control-One stone-Fat-Food (SCOFF), and the 10-item Autism Quotient (AQ-10). Of these, 28% screened positive for ED and 28% for ASD, and the percentage for ASD was higher in the DT group. TGD participants had elevated scores on borderline features and mania, whereas DT participants had elevated scores on anxiety-related disorders. The TGD group showed significantly higher scores on antisocial features, alcohol problems, and dominance, and significantly higher rates of self-harm; the DT group had significantly higher scores on phobias and significantly higher rates of social detachment. Both groups exhibited elevated scores on suicidal ideation, stress, and nonsupport. The results suggest that TGD and DT participants may have different psychological profiles, with TGD participants exhibiting more externalizing symptoms and DT participants reporting more neurodiversity and internalizing symptoms. The findings highlight common and distinct vulnerabilities and needs that should be considered in clinical practice.

Relative to the general population, autistic adults are at elevated risk for depression. Factors related to this risk are poorly understood, yet identifying such factors is important for improving mental health in autistic people. Emotion regulation (ER) challenges may be one such factor. However, few studies have examined ER challenges and depression in autistic adults. We examined ER challenges, depressive symptomatology and their associations in 775 (aged 18–83 years) autistic adults using network analysis, a method that permits identification of key components of ER and depression and their interrelatedness. Three non-regularized weighted undirected networks were estimated: ER challenges, depressive symptomatology, and combined ER-depressive challenges. Community structures revealed in the ER challenges and depressive symptomatology networks align with theoretical/nosological models of ER challenges/depressive symptoms as well as extant research using network analysis to examine these constructs. The combined ER challenges-depressive symptomatology network indicated that ER challenges and depressive symptomatology are interrelated but distinct constructs. These preliminary findings using cross-sectional data provide a first step in understanding associations between a candidate factor in depression vulnerability in autistic adults – ER challenges – and identify important future research directions.

Sensory Over-Responsivity Disorder (SORD) is characterized by extreme sensitivity to everyday sensory input, which can interfere with children’s emotional, behavioral and social development. Despite growing interest, limited research has explored its developmental effects in the absence of other psychiatric diagnoses. This study investigated self-regulation and related clinical features in preschool children with SORD who did not meet diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or obsessive-compulsive disorder. The sample included 15 children with SORD and 15 typically developing controls, matched by age and gender. Diagnoses were made using the Preschool Age Psychiatric Assessment, and comorbidities were excluded using Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood: Revised Edition criteria. Self-regulation was assessed through the Head-Toes-Knees-Shoulders-Revised task. While no significant differences were found in autistic traits, repetitive behaviors or executive functioning, children with SORD demonstrated significantly poorer self-regulation (p < .001). Poorer self-regulation was strongly associated with greater SORD severity, elevated ADHD symptoms, lower social interaction and increased emotional and sensory reactivity. These findings suggest that self-regulation difficulties are a core feature of SORD, even in the absence of comorbid psychiatric disorders. Early identification and interventions targeting self-regulation may help improve long-term outcomes for children affected by SORD.

Autistic adolescents are at higher risk of self-harm, suicidal behaviours, and emotion dysregulation compared with their non-autistic peers. Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is an evidence-based treatment for self-harm and suicidal behaviour with emerging literature of the application of DBT for autistic populations. Despite this, no qualitative research has investigated the experiences of autistic adolescents of standard DBT. Therefore, this study aimed to explore autistic adolescents’ experiences of non-adapted DBT. Ten adolescents who had or were seeking an autism diagnosis, and were in a DBT programme, completed semi-structured interviews. Qualitative data from the interviews were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Themes were generated for each objective. Objective 1 included themes about the lived experience of autistic adolescents accessing DBT, including: ‘The impact of invalidation’, ‘Fostering acceptance and understanding’, ‘What does autism mean to me?’, and ‘Autism and mental health difficulties’. The themes regarding Objective 2 were about the experiences of the various modes of DBT and were organised by each client-facing mode. Objective 3 included themes highlighting the experience of utilising DBT skills in daily life, which included: ‘Barriers to skills use’, ‘Supporting skills use’, and ‘Skills practice or masking?’. Finally, Objective 4 included themes regarding the recommendations participants had for optimising DBT for autistic people: ‘Improving written materials’ and ‘General accessibility advice’. These findings suggest for DBT therapists to embody cultural humility, curiosity, validation, and flexibility when building neuro-affirmative competencies for supporting autistic individuals. Results are discussed in relation to the application and acceptability of DBT for this group.

Key learning aims

1. (1) Recent publications (e.g. Keenan et al., 2023) have explored the experience of autistic adults accessing DBT and highlighted the need for clinicians to work collaboratively with clients and make reasonable adjustments to improve autistic adults’ understanding and adherence to DBT.

2. (2) To date, no qualitative studies have explored the experience of autistic adolescents accessing the Rathus and Miller (2015) Adolescent DBT model. The current study explores the views of autistic adolescents on how autism is discussed and considered by clinicians when supporting them to access different components of DBT when describing the strengths and barriers they experience.

3. (3) Adopting a bottom-up approach, we identify key themes from adolescents’ perspectives on how to support them to access and engage with different DBT components, ranging from making environmental adaptations to meet individual sensory needs to improve accessibility, to providing more opportunities for personalised learning using neuro-affirmative examples that can improve generalisability of skills in everyday life. We provide recommendations for clinicians to consider on ways of adapting the process and content of DBT to increase accessibility and engagement for autistic adolescents in treatment.

Autistic high school students overwhelmingly have a poor experience of school. Research into this stage of life is limited, and researchers have tended not to talk to autistic students directly, instead hearing from non-autistic observers such as teachers and parents. This study aimed to address this gap in our knowledge by interviewing autistic students in mainstream high schools about their experience of school and their ideas for how this could be improved. Ten autistic students (13 to 20 years old) in Australian high schools were interviewed. Students overwhelmingly reported a negative experience. Most said their ideal school would be one where teachers and peers had greater understanding about autism and teachers had training in autism. By including the student voice, this research makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of autistic students’ school experience, adding depth and detail, and including what they would like to see changed. Importantly, the interview data also challenged misconceptions about what autistic students prioritised. The voice of autistic teens can make an important contribution to policies and practices aimed at improving their experience of school.