The current study investigated the prevalence and pattern of unusual sensory behaviors (USBs) in teens with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and infants (3-36 months) at risk for ASD. From two different sites (UCSD and UConn), caregivers of infants at high (n = 32) and low risk (n = 33) for ASD, and teenagers with (n = 12) and without ASD (n = 11), completed age-appropriate Sensory Profile questionnaires (Infant/Toddler Sensory Profile; Dunn 2002; Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile; Brown and Dunn 2002). The results show that high-risk infants and teenagers with ASD exhibit higher-than-typical prevalence of USBs. Results of our distribution analyses investigating the direction of sensory atypicalities (greater-than-typical vs. less-than-typical) revealed a fair degree of consistency amongst teens, however, USB patterns were more varied in high-risk infants.

There is clear evidence that children with autism spectrum disorder display deficits in imitation but little consensus on the reasons for these deficits. In this paper, we review evidence that suggests that the presence of imitation deficits may be explained in part by social communication deficits, specifically by impaired social motivation. First, we discuss the social role that imitation serves in typical development and how imitation may facilitate the forming of social connections. Then, we describe evidence that suggests that both the impairments in imitation that have been seen in some areas, and the relative sparing of imitation in other areas, can be explained by impairments in social motivation. Lastly, the importance of therapies to incorporate social communication skills when targeting imitation is emphasized. As more research needs to be done to empirically examine this hypothesis, suggestions of directions for future studies are discussed.