Thesis advisor: Marilyn Cochran-Smith / The number of autistic students receiving special education services increased 478% between the years 2000 and 2013 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016). U.S. schools and teachers are educating more autistic students with complex educational needs resulting from differences in communication, social interaction and behavior. As a result, schools need increasing numbers of teachers who are equipped to educate them. Quality special education teacher preparation is critical for teachers of autistic students, because it can affect the quality of education and outcomes for this highly unique student population. Very little research has been conducted to determine the extent to which special education teacher preparation programs provide teachers with preparation to teach autistic students, or about the extent to which special educators feel prepared to teach this population at the point of conclusion of their preparation programs. This study used a mixed methods sequential explanatory design to examine the perceptions of special educators about their preparedness to teach autistic students based on preparation program/licensure, specialized autism coursework, and on-the-job experiences after licensure programs. A researcher-created survey was followed by interviews to explore participants’ survey responses more deeply. Survey data (n =121) were used to inform both question construction and participant selection for a purposive sample of follow-up interviews (n= 10). Regression analyses, means, summary scores, and thematic coding were employed to analyze the survey data. Results indicated that the majority (77%) of special education teachers felt unprepared to teach autistic students at the end of their licensure programs. However, specialized autism coursework was a significant predictor of teachers’ sense of preparedness. Limitations of the study and implications for special education teacher preparation and education are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

O Transtorno do Espectro Autista (TEA) é um transtorno neuropsiquiátrico grave caracterizado por comprometimento da capacidade de interação social e comunicação e pela presença de interesses, atividades e comportamentos repetitivos e restritos. O TEA apresenta alta heterogeneidade genética e pode ser enquadrado em diferentes modelos de herança, o que torna difícil apontar os fatores genéticos associados ao transtorno e compreender de que forma eles interagem e ocasionam, em última instância, sua manifestação clínica. Ainda, fenômenos como penetrância incompleta e discordância entre gêmeos monozigóticos são frequentemente observados em famílias com indivíduos afetados, tornando ainda mais complexo o entendimento do envolvimento de cada um dos fatores genéticos na etiologia do TEA. Uma forma de contornar esses problemas é a utilização de abordagens transcriptômicas no estudo desse transtorno. Nesse contexto, a busca por variantes patogênicas deixa de ser o principal foco do estudo e a atenção volta-se para a investigação de vias de sinalização e processos biológicos que estejam desregulados durante o processo de diferenciação neuronal e que sejam compartilhados pelos indivíduos afetados. Usando como principal ferramenta o sequenciamento do transcriptoma de células progenitoras neurais (NPC) e neurônios derivados de células-tronco pluripotentes induzidas (iPSC), identificamos uma série de alterações transcricionais importantes entre pacientes e controles, sugerindo que, a despeito da grande heterogeneidade genética associada ao transtorno, essas alterações se refletem em processos biológicos comuns. Nossos resultados são consistentes com os obtidos em trabalhos anteriores realizados com outros modelos de estudo e as linhagens celulares geradas a partir de nosso protocolo parecem refletir de forma fidedigna o perfil de expressão do cérebro fetal. Ainda, em um caso particular incluído neste estudo, investigamos as consequências transcricionais e funcionais de uma duplicação na região 17p13.3 - alteração previamente implicada em outros casos de autismo - nas células neuronais deste paciente, contribuindo para a compreensão do papel desta duplicação na patofisiologia do TEA. Dessa forma, nosso trabalho reforça a validade do uso de células neurais derivadas de iPSC e de abordagens transcricionais para o estudo de transtornos do neurodesenvolvimento / Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a severe neuropsychiatry disorder characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, restricted interests and repetitive behaviors. ASD is highly genetically heterogeneous and can be caused by different inheritance models, which hampers the identification of the genetic factors associated to the disorder. Incomplete penetrance and discordance between monozygotic twins are often observed in families of affected individuals, making it even more complex to understand the involvement of genetic factors in ASD. Applying transcriptomic approaches to study this disorder is an interesting way to overcome these problems. In this context, searching for pathogenic variants is no longer the study\'s main focus. Instead, one aims to investigate signaling pathways and biological process that are deregulated during neuronal differentiation and shared by affected individuals. Based on the transcriptome sequencing of neural progenitor cells (NPC) and neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), we were able to identify a series of important transcriptional alterations between patients and controls, which suggest that despite the great genetic heterogeneity associated to ASD, those alterations are reflected in common biological processes. Our results are consistent with those obtained in previous studies performed with other models and the lineages generated by our protocol seem to reliably reflect fetal brain expression profile. Moreover, in a particular case included in this study, we investigated transcriptional and functional consequences of a duplication located at 17p13.3 - an alteration previously found in other autism cases - in the neuronal cells of this patient, contributing towards a better comprehension of the role of this duplication in ASD pathophysiology. Hence, our work reinforces the validity of the use of neural cell derived from iPSC and transcriptional approaches in the studies of neurodevelopmental disorders

O transtorno do espectro autista (TEA) é um transtorno de desenvolvimento que prejudica persistentemente a comunicação e a interação social e causa padrões restritos e repetitivos de comportamento, interesses e atividades. Esses sintomas estão presentes desde o início da infância e limitam ou prejudicam o cotidiano do indivíduo. Contudo, vários fatores impedem que seja possível diagnosticar antes dos três anos de idade, entre eles o fato de que o diagnóstico é essencialmente clínico e realizado com base nos critérios descritos no Manual diagnóstico e estatístico de transtornos mentais da sociedade americana de psiquiatria (DSM), entrevistas com os pais, observação do comportamento e aplicação de questionários e escalas padronizadas. Estas ferramentas e questionários para a realização do diagnóstico ainda carecem de validação e adaptação ao contexto brasileiro. O estudo das características antropométricas em indivíduos com TEA e indivíduos em desenvolvimento típico mostrou que podem existir diferenças como distâncias entre as pupilas, formato das orelhas, estrabismo e circunferência da cabeça. A hipótese é que seria possível classificar indivíduos com TEA e indivíduos em desenvolvimento típico com base nas medidas antropométricas faciais. Desta forma, este trabalho teve como objetivo a construção de um classificador que, dada uma imagem facial de uma criança, consiga discriminar entre os dois grupos, auxiliando assim o diagnóstico. A fim de testar a hipótese, foram coletadas imagens bidimensionais de crianças e adolescentes com TEA e em desenvolvimento tipico para a construção de uma base de dados. As imagens foram processadas por meio de um pipeline definido neste trabalho e foram testados e comparados diferentes métodos de redução de dimensionalidade e classificação e como resultado obteve-se acurácia de 80% na classificação com Random Forests / Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that persistently impairs communication and social interaction and causes restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, and activities. These symptoms are present from the beginning of childhood and limit or impair the daily life of the individual. However, several factors prevent it from being possible to diagnose before the age of three, including the fact that the diagnosis is essentially clinical and performed based on the criteria described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatry Association (DSM) , interviews with parents, observation of behavior and application of questionnaires and standardized scales. These tools and questionnaires to carry out the diagnosis still lack validation and adaptation to the brazilian context. The study of anthropometric features in individuals with ASD and individuals in typical development showed that there may be differences such as distances between the pupils, ear format, strabismus and head circumference. The hypothesis is that it would be possible to classify individuals with ASD and individuals in typical development based on anthropometric facial measures. Therefore, this work aimed to construct a classifier that, given a childs facial image, can discriminate between the two groups, thus helping the diagnosis. In order to test the hypothesis, two-dimensional images of children and adolescents with ASD and in typical development were collected for the database construction. The images were processed in a pipeline defined in this work and different methods of dimensionality reduction and classification were tested and compared and as a result 80% accuracy was obtained in the classification with Random Forests algorithm

O Transtorno do Espectro Autista (TEA) inclui em seu diagnóstico diversos sintomas, apresentando uma ampla variedade nos níveis de desenvolvimento e funcionamento. Embora não central ao diagnóstico, diversos pesquisadores têm associado déficits motores e dispraxia a esse diagnóstico. Além disso, tem-se associado prejuízos funcionais decorrentes da dispraxia em crianças com TEA. Na literatura são poucos os estudos que avaliam dispraxia em crianças com TEA, nenhum destes estudos no Brasil. Assim, nosso objetivo foi verificar se as crianças com TEA apresentam um perfil de dispraxia característico. Para isso realizamos coleta com 03 grupos distintos, cada um composto por 30 crianças, foram eles: TEA (G-TEA) nível 1, Síndrome de Down (G-SD) e controle (G-C). Para avaliação da praxia, optamos pelo teste Sensory Integration and Praxis Test (SIPT), que avalia diversas funções de praxia e já foi utilizado em estudos com a população alvo de nosso estudo. Além disso, utilizamos a Escala de Comportamento Adaptativo Vineland (para verificar o nível adaptativo dos indivíduos participantes), escala de Avaliação de Traços Autísticos (ATA) para sustentação diagnóstica do G-TEA e utilizamos a Escala de Classe Social de Pelotas, para verificar se a classe social teria impacto na amostra. Como resultado, as crianças do G-C apresentaram escores dentro da faixa de normalidade, sendo todos os escores positivos, as crianças do G-TEA apresentaram escores mais baixos do que o G-C, no entanto, apenas em 07 dos 17 testes tiveram prejuízos, com desempenho abaixo do normal, sendo estes testes relacionados à praxia (imitação de posturas, movimentos e oral, além de praxia sem indicação visual), função vestibular (equilíbrio e nistagmo) e, estereognosia. As crianças do G-SD apresentaram desempenho abaixo do normal em todos os testes aplicados, possivelmente isso é decorrente da comorbidade da síndrome com deficiência intelectual. Além disso, encontramos uma diferença significativa maior no escore da Vineland relacionado à Atividade de Vida Cotidiana, ao compararmos crianças com TEA com grupo controle. Estudos corroboram o achado em nossa pesquisa, indicando que, crianças com TEA apresentam dispraxia que parece ser característica deste transtorno. Alguns estudos encontraram que as crianças com TEA apresentam prejuízos nas mesmas áreas dos encontrados por nós. Os profissionais embora defendam a intervenção com essas crianças, têm usado poucas avaliações que justifiquem tais intervenções, dessa forma, acreditamos que é importante o uso de instrumentos para avaliação da praxia em crianças com TEA, visando direcionar o planejamento terapêutico e ganhos funcionais para essas crianças / Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) includes in its diagnostic several symptoms, with a wide variety in the levels of development and functioning. Although motor deficits and dyspraxia are not relevant to the diagnosis, several researchers have done this association. In addition, functional impairments due to dyspraxia have been associated in children with ASD. In the literature, there are few studies evaluating dyspraxia in children with ASD none of these studies in Brazil. Our aim was to verify if children with ASD have a characteristic dyspraxia profile. To do this, we performed a collection of three different groups, each composed of 30 children: ASD (G-ASD) level 1, Down Syndrome (G-DS) and control (G-C). In order to evaluate praxis, we decided to use the Sensory Integration and Praxis Test (SIPT), which evaluates several praxis functions and has already been used in studies with the target population of our study. In addition, we used the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale (to verify the adaptive level of the participants), Autistic Trait Scale (ATA) for diagnostic support of G-ASD and used the Pelotas Social Class Scale to verify if social class would have an impact on the sample. As a result, G-C presented scores within the range of normal, and all scores were positive, G-ASD children presented lower scores than GC, however, only in 07 of 17 tests with performance below of the normal, being these tests related to praxis (imitation of postures, movements and oral, besides praxis without visual indication), vestibular function (balance and nystagmus) and stereognosis. The G-DS children presented below-normal performance in all applied tests, possibly due to the comorbidity of the syndrome with intellectual disability. In addition, we found a major significant difference in the Vineland score related to Daily Living Activity, when comparing children with ASD with the control group. Studies corroborate the finding in our study, indicating that children with ASD have dyspraxia that appears to be characteristic of this disorder. Some studies have found that children with ASD has same difficulties that we found. Although practitioners advocate intervention with these children, they have used few evaluations instruments to justify such interventions, so we believe that it is important to use instruments to assess praxis in children with ASD, in order to direct the therapeutic planning and functional gains for these children

This paper describes an evaluation of the effectiveness of Behavioral Skills Training (BST) as an individual parent training model. BST effects on parent responses to child behavior, and by extension, child problem behavior was investigated. The parent participants in the study had children under the age of 10 years old with diagnoses such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder. The researcher conducted observations in situ and via video transmission. Implications of the study include the ability to effectively apply an intervention for parents in situations where the therapist cannot physically come to the parent’s home as well as the effectiveness of using BST to teach general problem behavior management to caregivers. The results presented suggest that behavioral skills training as a parent training method is effective for increasing appropriate parent behavior, but results are mixed for its immediate impact on child problem behavior. Keywords: attention deficit disorder, autism spectrum disorder, behavioral skills training, parent training, problem behavior

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:38:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Karoline Costa e Silva.pdf: 1355068 bytes, checksum: 425b98209ae3156ab48c117a1cd0affa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-10-10 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Taking into account Autism Spectrum Disorder, one of the most serious diseases in human development, it is recognized by the stereotypical use and repetitive language besides presence of repetitive behavior and restricted interests which affects social interaction. As such resilience is not being very much studied when it comes to this pathology, this dissertation has the objective to assess the disease towards mothers who have children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In the Northeast, Southwest, South and Central East part of Brazil, also aiming in verifying risk factors and mother´s protection in these different regions. The term resilience, here applied, has been applied in the sense of process, where a person, group or community is able to overcome adversity situations turning them into personal development and collective. Instruments used in data collection were through a questionnaire to sum up socio demographic data and resilience scale (WAGNILD e YOUNG,1993), translated and adapted by Pesce et. al(2005). The research has been performed with a sample of 288 mothers, affiliated to Brazilian Institutions that provide assistance to families and children with ASD. The methodology used has been the convenience sampling and theory reference the Resilience construct analysis. General results indicate that mothers, in different regions, present good levels of resilience. Regarding distribution of results in resilience scale, 58,7% of the sampling present moderate resilience, 32,7% high resilience, 8,6% low resilience. There was no statistic relevant difference between general scale result and resilience factors besides regions where participants live. Results show the presence of risk factors and mother´s resilience when dealing with the condition of having a child with ASD. Such findings contribute to the understanding of resilience construct analysis as a process recognized as a phenomenon that takes into account the context the human being is inserted and reveal the importance of individual characteristics in explaining such scenario / Considerando o Transtorno do Espectro do Autismo uma das patologias mais sérias do desenvolvimento humano, caracterizada pelo uso estereotipado e repetitivo da linguagem e pela presença de comportamentos repetitivos e interesses restritos, o que compromete a interação social, e sendo a resiliência um tema pouco estudado nessa patologia, a dissertação teve como objetivo geral avaliar a resiliência em mães de filhos com Transtorno do espectro do autismo- TEA, nas regiões Nordeste, Sudeste, Sul e Centro- Oeste do Brasil, e como objetivo específico verificar os fatores de risco e de proteção das mães, nessas diferentes regiões. O termo resiliência foi empregado no sentido de processo, através do qual uma pessoa, grupo ou comunidade superam situações de adversidade, transformando-as em desenvolvimento pessoal e coletivo. Os instrumentos utilizados na coleta de dados foram um questionário para levantamento de dados sociodemográficos e a escala de resiliência (WAGNILD e YOUNG,1993), traduzida e adaptada por Pesce et. al(2005). A pesquisa foi realizada com uma amostra de 288 mães, filiadas às instituições brasileiras que prestam assistência à família e ao filho com TEA. O método utilizado foi quantitativo, de amostragem por conveniência, e o referencial teórico o constructo de Resiliência. Os resultados gerais indicam que as mães, nas diferentes regiões, apresentam bons níveis de resiliência. Quanto à distribuição dos resultados da escala de resiliência, 58,7% da amostra têm resiliência moderada, 32,7% resiliência alta, e apenas 8,6% resiliência baixa. Não houve diferença estatística significativa entre resultado geral da escala e os fatores de resiliência e as regiões onde moravam as participantes. Os resultados revelam a presença de fatores de risco, de proteção e de resiliência de mães que enfrentam a condição de ter um filho com TEA. Esses achados contribuem para a compreensão do constructo de resiliência como um processo, portanto como um fenômeno que leva em consideração o contexto em que o ser humano está inserido, e revelam a importância de características individuais na explicação desse fenômeno

There is increasing interest in the role of peers in facilitating the social interaction of pupils with ASD through Peer-mediated Interventions (PMI). A systematic literature review was conducted to provide an overview of methods used to evaluate the impact of PMI and provide examples of innovative practice. Four databases were searched. Following application of inclusion and exclusion criteria and coding of studies, 10 were included in the final review. The review found that measuring the outcome of PMI at the level of target pupils has been a focus, with less attention given to exploring experiences of participants; impact on peers and implementation of PMI within an educational context. An innovative PMI was implemented within a mainstream primary school to promote the social inclusion of a Year 3 male pupil with ASD, with his class and five peers. Key elements of the PMI included development of the programme with school staff, whole class awareness raising and a small group peer network. The intervention was evaluated through structured playground observations of pupil-peer interaction, interviews with the target pupil and school staff and a peer focus group. Findings indicated that this small-scale PMI had a positive impact at the level of the target pupil and peers. Key factors facilitating the implementation of this intervention within a school context were also identified. A structured dissemination strategy that involved consultation activities with key stakeholders explored the refinement of an ecologically valid and feasible model for delivery in mainstream schools. Future considerations in developing the intervention framework include; refining elements of the programme based on feedback from key stakeholders and trialling the delivery of the intervention by school staff trained in the programme. Implications for Educational Psychologists (EPs) in the development and delivery of the intervention are discussed.

Social cognitive abilities are needed to process and understand social information in order to respond appropriately in everyday social interactions. While there are a number of tests that have been developed to measure social cognition in the literature, many have important limitations such as only assessing one ability, performance being predicted by measures of intelligence and exhibiting low ecological validity. To address some of these limitations, I developed a new test called the Edinburgh Social Cognition Test (ESCoT). The ESCoT is an animated test that assesses four domains of social cognition: cognitive Theory of Mind (ToM) (What is X thinking?); affective ToM (How does X feel at the end of the animation?); interpersonal understanding of social norms (Did X behave as other people should behave?); and intrapersonal understanding of social norms (Would you have acted the same as X in the animation?). The aims of this thesis were to examine the validity of the ESCoT as a test of social cognition and to further investigate social cognitive processes in healthy and neurological populations. The ESCoT was firstly administered to a healthy population of older, middle-aged and younger adults to examine the effects of ageing on social abilities. This study found that the ESCoT was sensitive to age; poorer performances on cognitive and affective ToM and also interpersonal but not intrapersonal understanding of social norms were predicted by older age. Furthermore unlike traditional tests used in the study, performance was not predicted by measures of intelligence. Instead, the sex of participants and autistic-like traits, in addition to age were found to be important for performance. The ESCoT was then validated in a sample of adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and performance was compared to performance on established social cognition tests. Convergent validity was demonstrated in the study and the ESCoT was sensitive to social cognitive difficulties found in ASD. This study also showed that the ESCoT was more effective than existing tests at differentiating ASD adults and neurotypical controls. The interplay of social anxiety and empathy on ESCoT performance in addition to further exploring sex and autistic-like traits were then examined in a younger adult population. Social anxiety and empathy were not significant predictors of performance on the ESCoT. Similar to the results of the ageing study, this study found that women were better than men on affective ToM. However, unlike the ageing study, better cognitive ToM performance was predicted by older age. Better performance on interpersonal understanding of social norms and ESCoT total scores were predicted by more years of education. The subsequent chapter then examined the clinical efficacy of the ESCoT in a patient population (Alzheimer's disease, behavioural-variant Frontotemporal dementia and amnestic mild cognitive impairment). Here performance on the ESCoT was compared between the patients and neurotypical controls. It was found that patients performed poorer than neurotypical controls on ESCoT total scores, affective ToM, inter-and intrapersonal understanding of social norms. The final chapter returned to healthy ageing to more closely investigate the consequences of healthy ageing on social cognitive processes, by examining the positivity bias (preference for positive over negative stimuli) found in older adults using an attention paradigm. There was no evidence of the positivity bias in older, middle-aged and younger adults in regards to reaction time or accuracy. However, older and middle-aged adults differed in accuracy across stimuli type compared to younger adults. This thesis offers novel insights into the social cognitive abilities of various populations. The ESCoT presents a new, informative and validated test of social cognition for researchers and clinicians to use, which has many advantages over established tests of social cognition.

O transtorno do espectro autista (TEA) é um transtorno de desenvolvimento que prejudica persistentemente a comunicação e a interação social e causa padrões restritos e repetitivos de comportamento, interesses e atividades. Esses sintomas estão presentes desde o início da infância e limitam ou prejudicam o cotidiano do indivíduo. Contudo, vários fatores impedem que seja possível diagnosticar antes dos três anos de idade, entre eles o fato de que o diagnóstico é essencialmente clínico e realizado com base nos critérios descritos no Manual diagnóstico e estatístico de transtornos mentais da sociedade americana de psiquiatria (DSM), entrevistas com os pais, observação do comportamento e aplicação de questionários e escalas padronizadas. Estas ferramentas e questionários para a realização do diagnóstico ainda carecem de validação e adaptação ao contexto brasileiro. O estudo das características antropométricas em indivíduos com TEA e indivíduos em desenvolvimento típico mostrou que podem existir diferenças como distâncias entre as pupilas, formato das orelhas, estrabismo e circunferência da cabeça. A hipótese é que seria possível classificar indivíduos com TEA e indivíduos em desenvolvimento típico com base nas medidas antropométricas faciais. Desta forma, este trabalho teve como objetivo a construção de um classificador que, dada uma imagem facial de uma criança, consiga discriminar entre os dois grupos, auxiliando assim o diagnóstico. A fim de testar a hipótese, foram coletadas imagens bidimensionais de crianças e adolescentes com TEA e em desenvolvimento tipico para a construção de uma base de dados. As imagens foram processadas por meio de um pipeline definido neste trabalho e foram testados e comparados diferentes métodos de redução de dimensionalidade e classificação e como resultado obteve-se acurácia de 80% na classificação com Random Forests / Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder that persistently impairs communication and social interaction and causes restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, interests, and activities. These symptoms are present from the beginning of childhood and limit or impair the daily life of the individual. However, several factors prevent it from being possible to diagnose before the age of three, including the fact that the diagnosis is essentially clinical and performed based on the criteria described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatry Association (DSM) , interviews with parents, observation of behavior and application of questionnaires and standardized scales. These tools and questionnaires to carry out the diagnosis still lack validation and adaptation to the brazilian context. The study of anthropometric features in individuals with ASD and individuals in typical development showed that there may be differences such as distances between the pupils, ear format, strabismus and head circumference. The hypothesis is that it would be possible to classify individuals with ASD and individuals in typical development based on anthropometric facial measures. Therefore, this work aimed to construct a classifier that, given a childs facial image, can discriminate between the two groups, thus helping the diagnosis. In order to test the hypothesis, two-dimensional images of children and adolescents with ASD and in typical development were collected for the database construction. The images were processed in a pipeline defined in this work and different methods of dimensionality reduction and classification were tested and compared and as a result 80% accuracy was obtained in the classification with Random Forests algorithm

Stability of diagnosis, symptoms and functioning across the life span is central to understanding any disorder and yet remains a relatively unexplored area in the study of autism (Sigman & McGovern, 2005). This is particularly apparent in the development of communication, including social interaction and language development in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as there is little research on longitudinal development of children with ASD in general. The outlook on ASD has changed throughout the years, and although the emphasis on speech delay and communication problems have been separated from ASD, it is still one of the most common causes of initial referral in autism diagnoses (Pickles, Risi & Lord, 2004). Understanding the trajectory of communication for a child with ASD is fundamental in providing support and intervention in early years development. As communication is also a primary indicator on later development, it can gage outcomes into adaptive skills, school achievement and adult independence in later adult life. Eleven articles were identified in order to systematically review longitudinal studies based on communication development in ASD, or lack thereof, and why it is important to further carry out research in this area. This review seeks to explore: 1. How the development of different communicative functions in children with ASD is related to change over time. And, 2. What aspects of the child’s proximal processes and/or the child’s characteristics are discussed during measurement periods. Communicative functions were the most common form of communication observed in the studies at assessment periods and as for time points; two assessment periods were most common showing a linear trajectory of progress or decline from time point 1 and 2. All studies discussed aspects of child characteristics, most predominantly being gender and I.Q., however lacked insight into the significance of these and factors of proximal process during measurement periods in the studies reviewed. Ultimately, results display a need for more studies with at least three time points. With two time points only comes a “before” and “after” perspective, whereas, three or more time points enables collection of waves of data, showing key predictors of change in communication in children with a form of ASD.