Exploring individual trajectories of social communicative development in toddlers at risk for autism spectrum disorders

Abstract

While impairments in joint attention, imitation, and pretend play are well documented in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the developmental trajectories of these symptoms remain unknown. The main objective was to explore these trajectories in a sample of children at risk for ASD between the ages of 2 and 4 years. After screening positive for ASD, 17 children were prospectively followed with 6-monthly assessments of social communicative skills and general development.During this study, 9 children were diagnosed with ASD. Results showed that there was growth in imitation skills and in pretend play ability. Also, a slightly increased amount of initiation of joint attention was noted. However, the quality of joint attention behaviours did not significantly improve and growth rates did not significantly differ between children with ASD and non-ASD cases. There was a great intra-individual variability, especially in the performances on the imitation tasks. Also interindividual variability was apparent: Some children with ASD showed a delayed development of imitation or pretend play, whereas others had a more clearly deviant developmental profile. The importance of looking at individual trajectories and variability in the study of social communicative development in children with ASD is discussed.

Positive Affect Processing and Joint Attention in Infants at High Risk for Autism: An Exploratory Study

“…Although the majority of high-risk siblings will not receive a diagnosis, like other first-degree relatives of individuals with ASD, younger siblings often display subclinical deficits in social and communicative behaviors. The developmental patterns and eventual outcomes of high-risk siblings are variable, representing a continuum from typical, to mild social and communicative difficulties, to clinically significant deficits in all three domains included in the ASD diagnosis (Bolton et al 1994; Dereu, Roeyers, Raymaekers, & Warreyn 2012; Landa & Garrett-Mayer 2006; Messinger et al 2012; Zwaigenbaum et al 2005). …”

Avaliação do Brincar de Faz de Conta de Pré-Escolares: Revisão Integrativa da Literatura

“…Outros estudos foram realizados nos Estados Unidos (DAUNHAUER et al, 2010;HOFFMANN;RUSS, 2012;GOODS et al, 2013) (n=3), Inglaterra (KIRKHAM et al, 2013;HOBSON et al, 2013) A maioria dos estudos tinha como autores terapeutas ocupacionais (UREN; MCALONEY;DAUNHAUER et al, 2010;O'CONNOR;STAGNITTI, 2011;PFEIFER et al, 2011;FINK et al, 2012) e psicólogos (HOFFMANN; RUSS, 2012;GOODS et al, 2013;KIRKHAM et al, 2013;HOBSON et al, 2013;FRAHSEK et al, 2010;DEREU et al, 2012), com seis artigos cada; os demais, foram escritos por enfermeiros (CAMPOS et al, 2010;GIACOMELLO;MELO, 2011) STAGNITTI, 2011;PFEIFER et al, 2011;FINK et al, 2012), Test of Pretend Play (TOPP), em três estudos (DEREU et al, 2012;KIRKHAM et al, 2013;HOBSON et al, 2013), Affect in Play Scale-Brief Rating (APS-Br) em dois estudos (HSIEH, 2012;HOFFMANN;RUSS, 2012), e Avaliação da Maturidade Simbólica, Pretend Play Sequence, e Structured Play Assessment (SPA) presentes em um estudo cada um (QUINTAS et al, 2009;FRAHSEK et al, 2010;GOODS et al, 2013). Além disso, alguns estudos relataram outras formas de avaliação, tais como registro de comportamentos, escalas adaptadas pelos pesquisadores, conjuntos de brinquedos, brinquedo terapêutico e observações em diversos tipos de ambiente como hospitais, sala de aula, entre outros, como complemento das avaliações padronizadas (CAMPOS et al, 2010;GIACOMELLO;MELO, 2011;…”

“…Dentre estes estudos, três compararam o brincar de faz de conta de crianças de desenvolvimento típico e crianças com Transtorno do espectro autista (GOODS et al, 2013;DEREU et al, 2012;HOBSON et al, 2013); os outros estudos envolveram crianças com paralisia cerebral (HSIEH, 2012); déficit cognitivo (O'CONNOR; STAGNITTI, 2011); deficiência auditiva (QUINTAS et al, 2009) e crianças de desenvolvimento típico (KIRKHAM et al, 2013). A faixa etária variou entre 17 meses a nove anos de idade.…”

“…A amostra variou entre 15 e 60 participantes. Quanto ao método utilizado, quatro estudos (QUINTAS et al, 2009;DEREU et al, 2012;HOBSON et al, 2013;KIRKHAM et al, 2013) foram de caráter descritivo, observacional e não experimental, composto por dois grupos e três foram estudos clínicos comparando os resultados pré e pós intervenção lúdica (HSIEH, 2012;O'CONNOR;STAGNITTI, 2011, GOODS et al, 2013.…”

How relevant is the framework being used with autism spectrum disorders today?

“…Children who have been diagnosed with ASD have different developmental trajectories (Baghdadli, Assouline, Sonie, Pernon, Darrou, Michelon, et al, 2012;Dereu, Roeyers, Raymaekers, & Warreyn, 2012;Fein, Barton, Eigsti, Kelley, Naigles, Schultz, et al, 2013;Gotham, Pickles, & Lord, 2012;Howlin, Goode, Hutton, & Rutter, 2004;Woolfenden, Sarkozy, Ridley, & Williams, 2012). Some children are different from typically-developing children when they are toddlers, but " grow out " of these differences; some have differences that lead to " diffability " (a difference in ability that may not have a functional impact on an individual ' s potential and/or wellbeing), and some have differences that progress to disability (impaired function and participation).…”