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This study evaluated the effect of a comprehensive psychosocial intervention on supplemental measures of facial emotion encoding for children with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD) who were enrolled in prior randomized trials. A total of 60 children, ages 7 to 12 years were randomly assigned to treatment or wait-list control groups. Photographs of six posed facial expressions (happy, sad, angry, scared, surprised, and disgusted) taken at pretest and posttest were rated for encoding accuracy by naive raters. Ratings consisted of a) the extent to which the facial expression reflected each of the six possible emotions (extent rating) and b) a selection of the one emotion the raters identified as being portrayed (forced-choice). Results indicated significantly better encoding of sad at posttest for the treatment group on the extent (d = .58) and forced-choice (d = .56) ratings. Between-groups differences in encoding of the other emotions at posttest were non-significant. Implications for intervention and future research are presented.

This study was conducted to extend the research on adaptive functioning of children, ages 7–12, with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (HFASDs; n = 41) using the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System-II. Specific purposes included examination of (1) the ABAS-II adaptive profile; (2) relative strengths and weaknesses; and (3) predictors (age, IQ, and ASD symptomatology) of adaptive functioning for children with HFASDs. Results indicated significant deficits on overall adaptive functioning and all three adaptive composites. Relative weaknesses were found in the skill areas of social, home living, and self-direction and relative strengths in academics and community use. Analyses indicated that age and IQ did not predict ABAS-II composites, whereas total ASD symptoms negatively predicted overall adaptive functioning. Significant inverse correlations were found between the ASD symptoms of restricted and repetitive behaviors and the ABAS-II social and practical daily living skills composites. No significant correlations were found between ASD social symptoms and adaptive social skills or between ASD communication symptoms and adaptive language/communication skills.