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Parents of autistic children in multiplex families (i.e., families with at least two affected siblings) exhibit more autistic spectrum characteristics (e.g., limited friendships, deficits in speech and pragmatic language) than parents of healthy controls (Am J Med Genet 1997; 74:398). In a study designed to examine autistic features in siblings, parents who had joined an online autism register completed online questionnaires about their autistic child's full biological siblings (age range for all children, 4–18 years; 93% of families were white). Assessments included scales for rating autistic features.
Among the 1235 families, 10.9% had one other child with autism spectrum disorder. Of the presumably unaffected siblings in multiplex familie…