E Elderly with Autism Spectrum Disorders Matthew Bennett and Emma Goodall The University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia Definition Kanner’ s sentinel article Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact focused on children, and this autism research and inquiry has been focused on children and adolescents on the autism spectrum (Jang et al. 2014; Kanner 1943; Perkins and Berkman 2012; Wise et al. 2017). However, as our knowledge about the autism spectrum has increased, more research about adults and elderly people with this condition is emerging. This entry begins with an overview of the propor- tion of age cohorts which are examined in autism research. It will then summarize the small amount of published research about elderly people on the autism spectrum. This will be followed by an explanation for why this population is rarely researched and areas where more research about this age cohort could be useful in meeting individual needs as well as wider public health goals. Historical Background Since the publication of Kanner’ s writings about autism, there has been a systematic and ongoing effort to examine children with autism, resulting in a dearth of research about other cohorts. In 2014, Jang and colleagues published a study where they calculated the proportion of age cohorts in autism articles which were published from 1994 to 2004. They collected and analyzed 2857 articles from 7 journals which specialized in publishing articles about the autism spectrum. They excluded letters to the editor, meta-analysis studies, and systematic literature reviews. Participants were classified and assigned to one of the four age categories: infants/toddlers (0–3 years), children (4–9 years), adolescents (10–19 years), and adults (>20 years, with further breakdown for those over 60). Jang et al. (2014) found that 94% of all studies (n ¼ 2688) which they collected and analyzed examined infants, toddlers, children, and adolescents (between 0 and 19 years of age). In contrast, 3% of studies (n ¼ 75) examined adults on the autism spectrum aged 60 years or older. Jang et al. (2014) concluded that most of our knowledge about the autism spectrum has been obtained from infants, children, and adolescents. Furthermore, based on this finding, Jang et al. (2014) proposed © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 F. R. Volkmar (ed.), Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_102195-2