Since COVID-19 has become a pandemic, everyday life has seen dramatic changes affecting individuals, families, and children with and without autism. Among other things, these changes entail more time at home, digital forms of communication, school closures, and reduced support and intervention. Here, we assess the effects of the pandemic on quality of life for school-age autistic and neurotypical children and adolescents. First, we provide a comprehensive review of the current relevant literature. Next, we report original data from a survey conducted in several countries, assessing activities, well-being, and social life in families with autism, and their changes over time. We focus on differences between children with and without autism from within the same families, and on different outcomes for children with high- or low-functioning autism. While individuals with autism scored lower in emotional and social functioning than their neurotypical siblings, both groups of children showed comparable decreases in well-being and increases in anxiety, compared to before the pandemic. By contrast, decreases in adaptability were significantly more pronounced in autistic children and adolescents compared to neurotypical children and adolescents. Overall, although individual families reported some positive effects of pandemic restrictions, our data provide no evidence that these generalize across children and adolescents with autism, or even just to individuals with high-functioning autism. We discuss the increased challenges that need to be addressed to protect children and adolescents’ well-being under pandemic conditions, but also point out potentials in the present situation that could be used towards social participation and success in older children and young adults with autism.

Modifying established motor skills is a challenging endeavor due to proactive interference from undesired old to desired new actions, calling for high levels of cognitive control. Motor restrictions may facilitate the modification of motor skills by rendering undesired responses physically impossible, thus reducing demands to response inhibition. Here we studied behavioral and EEG effects of rule changes to typing in skilled touch-typists. The respective rule change—typing without using the left index finger—was either implemented per instruction only or with an additional motor restriction. In both groups, the rule change elicited delays and more errors in typing, indicating the occurrence of proactive interference. While stimulus-locked ERPs did not exhibit prominent effects of rule change or group, response-locked ERPs revealed that the time courses of preparatory brain activity preceding typing responses depended on the presence of motor restriction. Although further research is necessary to corroborate our findings, they indicate a novel brain correlate that represents changes in inhibitory response preparation induced by short-term motor restrictions.

Background: Since COVID-19 has become pandemic, everyday life has seen dramatic changes affecting individuals, families, and children with and without autism. These entail, among other things, more time at home, digital forms of communication, school closures, and reduced support and intervention. Aim: Here we aim to systematically assess the effects of the pandemic on autistic and neurotypical (NT) children, and pursue a pre-registered hypothesis suggested by initial observations that some children with autism might respond comparatively well to a situation of constrained, predictable, and digital social communication during the pandemic. Methods: We provide a systematic review of current relevant work, including 76 papers selected from a database search until February 1, 2021. We then report survey data from several countries assessing activities, well-being (PedsQLTM), and social life in families with autism, and their respective change at various stages of the pandemic. We focus on differences between children with and without autism from within the same families, and on different outcomes for children with high- or low-functioning autism. Results: While children with autism scored lower in emotional and social functioning than their NT siblings, comparable decreases in well-being and increases in anxiety were seen for both groups, compared to before the pandemic. By contrast, decreases in adaptability were significantly more pronounced in autistic than NT children. Preliminary results suggest that changes were comparable for children with high- and low-functional autism overall, but individual differences prevail. Conclusions: Overall, although individual families do report some positive effects of pandemic restrictions, our data give no clear evidence that these generalize across children with autism, or even just to children with high-functioning autism. We discuss significant challenges for children with and without autism that need to be addressed to protect childrens’ well-being under pandemic conditions but also point to potential in the present situation that could be used towards social participation and success in older children and young adults with autism.