Social and Communication Development in Autism Spectrum Disorders: Early Identification, Diagnosis, and Intervention

From leading clinical researchers, this book presents important advances in understanding and treating the early social-communication difficulties that are hallmarks of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It is grounded in current findings on typically and atypically developing infants, toddlers, and pre-schoolers. Contributors highlight the connections between ASD and impairments in joint attention, communication and language, play, and imitation. They review approaches to supporting children's functioning in each area, along with evidence-based screening and assessment strategies. Valuable advice is offered on matching treatment to individual children's needs. The book also explores the developmental and neurobiological processes that underlie social-communication deficits in ASD.

Key Features:

• Emphasises empirically based assessment and treatment of core early social-communication problems in ASD.
• Early intervention is considered pivotal, and this book focuses on the key age group of 1 to 5.
• Important volume for all who work with children with developmental disabilities.
• Covers significant advances in cognitive neuroscience.
• Editors are well known in the field.

This book will be helpful for clinical, school, and developmental psychologists, child psychiatrists, special educators and early intervention specialists, speech–language pathologists, paediatricians, and other child health and education professionals.

Table of Contents

I. Assessment and Diagnosis

1. Understanding and Measuring Social Communication in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Amy M. Wetherby
2. Early Diagnosis of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Catherine Lord and Jennifer Richler

II. Screening and Surveillance

3. Screening for Autism Spectrum Disorders in Populations: Progress, Challenges, and Questions for Future Research and Practice, Tony Charman and Simon Baron-Cohen
4. Early Screening for Autism Spectrum Disorders in Clinical Practice Settings, Lonnie Zwaigenbaum and Wendy Stone

III. Evidence-Based Interventions

5. Treatment of Responding to and Initiating Joint Attention, Paul J. Yoder and Andrea S. McDuffie
6. Evidence-Based Interventions for Language Development in Young Children with Autism, Sally J. Rogers
7. Promoting Social Reciprocity and Symbolic Representation in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders: Designing Quality Peer Play Interventions, Pamela J. Wolfberg and Adriana L. Schuler
8. Imitation: Some Cues for Intervention Approaches in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Jacqueline Nadel and Nadra Aouka
9. Augmentative and Alternative Communication Systems for Children with Autism, Patricia Howlin

IV. Developmental and Neurobiological Issues

10. A Developmental Approach to Understanding Atypical Development, Tedra A. Walden and Jennifer J. Hurley
11. The Neural Basis of Early Joint-Attention Behavior, Peter Mundy and Danielle Thorp

"The most important, ambitious, and exciting volume to be published on autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in the last several years. The volume brings together leading scholars and researchers whose work has led to revolutionary changes in early diagnosis and innovative, effective intervention....Taken together, the chapters demonstrate the feasibility of identifying every toddler at risk and providing interventions to significantly reduce the severity of symptoms and promote language acquisition."
- Helen Tager-Flusberg, PhD, Lab of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Boston University School of Medicine