Editorial Preface

It is my pleasure to introduce this early summer 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 sleep and physical activity patterns in youth with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), determination of minor physical anomalies and motor system function, the development of assessment instruments for evaluating social cognition and temperament, investigation of attentional mechanisms and a pilot treatment study focused on joint attention training, studies addressing potential strengths and weaknesses within various sensory modalities, an analysis of the impact of a child’s symptom severity on depressed mood in parents of children with ASDs, a review of the relationship between serotonin and the immune system in autism, and finally a case describing a chromosomal abnormality in association with autism. …