A recent Duke study explored a link between ADHD, difficulties with big emotions, and adaptive behavior – a person’s ability to perform everyday social and personal life skills - in autistic children. We found that kids with more difficulty managing big emotions also had greater difficulties with social adaptive behavior specifically.
This paper was co-led by Kim Carpenter, PhD and Naomi Davis, PhD, and was published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders in 2024. Funding was provided by the Duke Autism Center of Excellence grant from the National Institutes of Health, Deptartment of Defense, and a grant from the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation.
Carpenter, K.L., Davis, N.O., Spanos, M. et al. Adaptive Behavior in Young Autistic Children: Associations with Irritability and ADHD Symptoms. J Autism Dev Disord 54, 3559–3566 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05753-2