Figure 5. Autism Publications Word Cloud.

Word cloud. This word cloud shows frequently used words in autism research publications from 1980 to 2010 by research category.  The size of each word indicates its relative prevalence in autism publications. The top ten most prevalent words across all autism publications in descending order are:  autism, children, spectrum, developmental, social, age, research, data, treatment, and rights. The top fifteen most frequently used words appearing in the Critical Question area of Diagnosis in descending order are:  developing, early, attention, language, diagnosed, months, verbal, performance, IQ, ability, difficulties, learning, interactions, relationships, and speech. The top fifteen most frequently used words appearing in the Critical Question area of Biology in descending order are: brain, cognitive, abnormalities, function, processing, functional, features, system, understanding, expression, activity, model, mechanisms, deficit, and underlying. The top fifteen most frequently used words appearing in the Critical Question area of Risk Factors in descending order are: genetic, risk, association, factors, copy, genome, exposure, molecular, maternal, etiology, phenotype, regression, delay, environment, and male. The top fifteen most frequently used words appearing in the Critical Question area of Treatments and Interventions in descending order are: effects, behavioral, adolescents, controlled, interaction, efficacy, play, response, teaching, approach, improvement, anxiety, therapy, ADHD, and target. The top fifteen most frequently used words appearing in the Critical Question area of Services in descending order are: parents, intervention, health, disabilities,  support, care, school, services, future, young, family, effective, training, impact, and evaluation.  The top fifteen most frequently used words appearing in the Critical Question area of Lifespan Issues in descending order are: adults, functioning, skills, symptoms, diagnosis, assessment, people, self, relationship, positive, intellectual, disability, life, Asperger, and psychiatric. The top fifteen most frequently used words appearing in the Critical Question area of Infrastructure and Surveillance in descending order are: diagnostic, prevalence, population, childhood, information, screening, questionnaire, follow, year, birth, period, rates, cohort, rate, and identification.