UC Riverside

This study examined emotion regulation within the context of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and its relation to early literacy skills in students with ASD in children participating in a larger longitudinal study of school transition experiences. Participants (N=145) were assessed during the spring of their current school year on measures of early literacy using AIMSweb universal screening measures. An exploratory factory analysis of the Emotion Regulation Checklist identified five factors associated with emotion regulation in children (i.e., Negativity/Mood Dysregulation, Impulsivity, Affective Displays, Emotion Regulation, and Flexibility). Correlation analyses revealed that Emotion Regulation was positively correlated with AIMSweb Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) for children in Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten and negatively correlated with AIMSweb Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF). Parenting ratings of impulsivity were also linked to child performance on AIMSweb Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF). Implications for future research in the validity of ER assessment and its relation to school outcomes in ASD are also discussed.