Autism can be spotted in babies as young as four months old simply by monitoring their response to games such as peek-a-boo or incy-wincy spider, a new study suggests.

One year after researchers published their work on a physiological test for autism, a follow-up study confirms its exceptional success in assessing whether a child is on the autism spectrum. A physiological test that supports a clinician’s diagnostic process has the potential to lower the age at which children are diagnosed, leading to earlier treatment. Results of the study, which uses an algorithm to predict if a child has autism spectrum disorder (ASD) based on metabolites in a blood sample, published online today, appear in the June edition of Bioengineering & Translational Medicine.

Giving children with autism a healthier mix of gut bacteria as a way to improve behavioral symptoms continued to work even two years after treatment ended. The finding may solidify the connection between tummy troubles and autism, and provide more evidence that the gut microbiome — the collection of bacteria and other microbes that live in the intestines — can influence behavior.

Children with autism have difficulty reading social cues and discerning other people’s emotions. Studies have shown that using Google Glass improves their ability to read facial expressions, making it an ideal tool in places such as China that have few therapists available.

Machine learning network offers personalized estimates of children’s behavior.

One year after researchers published their work on a physiological test for autism, a follow-up study confirms its exceptional success in assessing whether a child is on the autism spectrum. A physiological test that supports a clinician’s diagnostic process has the potential to lower the age at which children are diagnosed, leading to earlier treatment. Results of the study, which uses an algorithm to predict if a child has autism spectrum disorder (ASD) based on metabolites in a blood sample, published online today, appear in the June edition of Bioengineering & Translational Medicine.

A Duke study of an iPhone app to screen young children for signs of autism has found that the app is easy to use, welcomed by caregivers and good at producing reliable scientific data. The study, described June 1 in an open access journal npj Digital Medicine, points the way to broader, easier access to screening for autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. The app first administers caregiver consent forms and survey questions and then uses the phone’s ‘selfie’ camera...

Simon Baron-Cohen absorbs the grave revelations in a study on a paediatrician enmeshed in autism’s history.

That was the ruling by the editors of the authoritative Diagnostic and Statistical Manual in 2013, but it remains controversial

One in 59 US children has autism, according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new estimate is a prevalence rate of 1.7%, up from one in every 68 children (1.5%) in the 2016 report, which was based on data from 2012. The new figure was derived from 2014 estimates for 8-year-olds diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder in 11 communities across the nation.

A new CDC autism report finds that rates of autism are rising among U.S. children. Given the fraught history of the (consistently debunked) allegations that vaccines are tied to autism spectrum disorders, there may be an impulse in certain corners to bring up vaccinations as a potential root for this rise in diagnoses. The scientific consensus still resoundingly rejects that argument.

Dogs cannot get ‘autism’, the British Veterinary Association has warned, after the ‘anti-vaccine’ movement spread to pets. 'Anti-vaxxers' believe that immunisations have harmful side effects and may be the cause of autism in children - beliefs widely debunked by the medical community. This theory is increasingly being applied to pets, particularly in the US, and there are fears it is spreading to the UK and could cause already low vaccination rates to fall.

Dogs cannot get ‘autism’, the British Veterinary Association has warned, after the ‘anti-vaccine’ movement spread to pets.

The author on her love for ‘The Prisoner,’ her pilgrimage to the town where it was filmed, and the pressure she felt as an autistic person to downplay the intensity of her interests. By Sarah Kurchak.

Tennessee authorities have arrested a father for allegedly killing his 5-year-old son, who had autism and was non-verbal. The boy was reported missing earlier this week.

Of all the challenges that come with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the social difficulties are among the most devastating. Currently, there is no treatment for this primary symptom of ASD. New research at the University at Buffalo reveals the first evidence that it may be possible to use a single compound to alleviate the behavioral symptoms by targeting sets of genes involved in the disease.

Like thousands of French children whose parents believe they have autism, Rachel’s six-year-old son had been placed by the state in a psychiatric hospital day unit. The team there, of the school of post-Freudian psychoanalysis, did not give a clear-cut diagnosis.

New data suggest the rate hovers between two and three percent

Scientists are examining the feasibility of treating autistic children with neuromodulation after a new study showed social impairments can be corrected by brain stimulation. The research from the O’Donnell Brain Institute provides the first evidence that a specific part of the cerebellum, a region near the brain stem that has long been thought to only have roles in coordinating movement, is critical for autistic behaviors.

New Swinburne research shows that people who find social situations difficult tend to have similar brain responses to those with schizophrenia or autism. The research, published in Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, found the areas of the brain that show increased response when exposed to unexpected speech sounds or ‘phonemes’ are associated with the processing of social information and linked with spectrum conditions such as autism or schizophrenia.