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Relatively few measures have been examined for their psychometric properties when assessing anxiety among children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and the relationship between ASD and anxiety symptoms remains poorly understood. This study examined the relationship between ASD symptoms on the "Social Responsiveness Scale" ("SRS") and comorbid clinical anxiety. In a sample of 2,435 participants, parents of children with ASD and comorbid anxiety endorsed more frequent or severe ASD symptoms than parents of children without comorbid anxiety. Severity of ASD symptoms was a significant predictor of anxiety status and approached clinical significance. Implications for measurement of anxiety among children with ASD are discussed, including that areas of symptom presentation should be carefully evaluated, and that the onset or worsening of anxiety may affect ASD symptom presentation.

As the pressure to succeed academically is imposed on children earlier than ever before, it is essential to understand what characteristics are most important to parents and teachers in order to be school ready. While formally readiness is typically measured using chronological age and mastery of cognitive skills, it also involves physical, behavioral and social-emotional development. Variability exists culturally as to the importance of these various early school readiness characteristics. Moreover, while parents and teachers generally agree, discrepancies between parents and teachers on the importance of specific components for early school readiness arise. In the current study, we examined which characteristics of early school readiness were deemed most and least important according to parents and teachers of 30-42 months old children. Our findings indicate that teachers and parents agreed upon the relative importance of early school readiness components. For both groups, being healthy, happy, and socially skilled were generally ranked as more important than cognitive abilities in the preschool aged child. These conclusions are promising because children's success is facilitated when parents and teachers share beliefs on which skills children need to successfully transition into the classroom environment.