Introduction: The coronavirus pandemic has swept across the United Kingdom (UK). Given the ever-evolving situation, little is known about the repercussions of coronavirus and the subsequent lockdowns for children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Therefore, this study explores the social-communicative impact of the first lockdown (March 2020 – July 2020) in the UK and the return to school period (September 2020 – October 2020), following prolonged disruption to routine, in children diagnosed with ASD. Methods: Parents of autistic children completed 2 separate online surveys following the first lockdown in the UK (n = 176) and also when children returned to school following the summer break (n = 54). Results: The results suggested that self-regulation skills (p < .05) and co-operation skills (p < .05) were most affected over the course of the lockdown. Children’s physical activity levels were perceived to significantly increase during the return to school (p < .0001), which was associated with better social-communication outcomes (p < .05). Conclusion: Future work is needed to confirm and explore the findings. Such work could be implemented to protect and improve the social-communicative outcomes of autistic children.

简介：冠状病毒大流行席卷了英国（UK）。鉴于不断变化的情况，人们对冠状病毒的影响以及随后对被诊断患有自闭症谱系障碍 (ASD) 的儿童的封锁知之甚少。因此，本研究探讨了英国首次封锁（2020 年 3 月至 2020 年 7 月）和返校期（2020 年 9 月至 2020 年 10 月）对被诊断患有 ASD 的儿童的社会交流影响，这些影响是在长时间中断常规后。方法：自闭症儿童的父母在英国第一次封锁后（ n  = 176）和孩子在暑假后返回学校时完成了 2 个独立的在线调查（ n  = 54）。结果：结果表明，自我调节技能 ( p < .05) 和合作技能 ( p < .05) 在封锁期间受到的影响最大。在返回学校期间，儿童的身体活动水平被认为显着增加 ( p < .0001)，这与更好的社交交流结果相关 ( p < .05)。结论：需要进一步的工作来确认和探索这些发现。可以实施此类工作来保护和改善自闭症儿童的社会交流成果。