Editorial Preface

It is my pleasure to introduce the early fall issue of JADD to our readers. The articles included in this issue span a wide range of topics of great interest to our readership, including studies related to early social communication behaviors in younger siblings of children with autism and novel approaches to modifying affective behavior in preschoolers with autism; the assessment of psychological and physiological processes, such as executive function and fear-potentiated startle response, in individuals with autism; the manifestation of autistic symptoms in persons with Down syndrome, Romanian adoptees, and those with mental retardation (MR); the determination of maternal and paternal stress and mental health in parents of preschool children with autism; and finally, a study of genetic factors in females with autism and an analysis of clinical features in infants with fragile X syndrome. …