The Development of Referential Communication and Autism Symptomatology in High‐Risk Infants

Abstract

Non-verbal referential communication is impaired in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). However, the development of difficulties with referential communication in the younger siblings of children with ASD (High-Risk Siblings)—and the degree to which early referential communication predicts later autism symptomatology—is not clear. We modeled the early developmental trajectories of three types of referential communication: responding to joint attention (RJA), initiating joint attention (IJA), and initiating behavioral requests (IBR) across 8, 10, 12, 15, and18 months of age in High-Risk Siblings (n = 40) and the infant siblings of children without ASD (Low-Risk Siblings; n = 21). Hierarchical Linear Modeling indicated that High-Risk Siblings exhibited lower levels of baseline RJA and IJA and a lower rate of linear change in IBR than Low-Risk Siblings. When the 10 High-Risk Siblings who received an ASD diagnosis were excluded from analyses, group differences in the development of referential communication remained significant only for RJA. Baseline levels of IJA were associated with later ASD symptomatology among High-Risk Siblings, suggesting that individual differences in referential communication development at 8 months may index early manifestations of ASD.

Gaze to faces across interactive contexts in infants at heightened risk for autism

“…Given the common research strategy of measuring infant social-communicative behavior when engaged with unfamiliar examiners (e.g. Ibañez et al, 2013; Nichols et al, 2014; Ozonoff et al, 2010; Yirmiya et al, 2006), we examined whether gaze to the examiner’s face during the Mullen testing was predictive of gaze to the parent’s face during parent–child play at each age. To control for potential effects of familial risk and diagnostic outcome on gaze behavior, the outcome groups were dummy-coded and added to the models.…”

Joint Attention Initiation With and Without Positive Affect: Risk Group Differences and Associations with ASD Symptoms

“…Participants included those in Ibañez, Grantz, and Messinger’s (2012) study of IJA (high-risk n = 40, low-risk n = 21) and an additional five low-risk and 16 high-risk infants. Smiling during IJA was not reported in Ibañez et al The current study focused on IJA smiling types during the Early Social Communication Scales at 8, 10, and 12 months of age—participants had ESCS data at least one of these ages—and ASD-relevant outcomes.…”

“…There is evidence that high-risk siblings produce fewer joint attention behaviors than siblings of children with no familial risk for ASD (low-risk siblings; e.g., Cassel et al, 2007; Goldberg et al, 2005; Presmanes, Walden, Stone, & Yoder, 2007; Rozga et al, 2011; Yirmiya et al, 2006) and spend less time gazing toward an object being referenced by a videotaped partner than controls (Bedford et al, 2012). In a recent study, Ibañez, Grantz, and Messinger (2012) examined the developmental trajectories of IJA in high-and low-risk siblings and found that high-risk siblings displayed lower levels of IJA at eight months. In high-risk siblings, these IJA levels were associated with later ASD symptomatology.…”

“…In high-risk siblings, these IJA levels were associated with later ASD symptomatology. Neither Ibañez and colleagues (2012) nor others have examined anticipatory smiling and other IJA smiling patterns in high-risk siblings.…”

Early detection of autism spectrum disorders: From retrospective home video studies to prospective ‘high risk’ sibling studies

“…As far as retrospective studies are concerned, several works focused on the analysis of movement and sensory-motor development Damiano et al, 2013;Flanagan et al, 2012;LeBarton and Iverson, 2013;Loh et al, 2007;Mulligan and White, 2012;Nickel et al, 2013), on the analysis of social behaviors (Christensen et al, 2010;Cornew et al, 2012;Landa et al, 2007;Nadig et al, 2007;Ozonoff et al, 2010;Presmanes et al, 2007;Sullivan et al, 2007), and on the precursors of communication such as crying or vocalizations (Paul et al, 2011;Sheinkopf et al, 2012). Other studies analyzed parent-infant interaction, during the face to face-still face paradigm (Cassel et al, 2007;Chow et al, 2010;Hutman et al, 2012;Ibanez et al, 2013;Rozga et al, 2011;Yirmiya et al, 2006) or during unstructured play sessions. For example, in Wan et al (2012Wan et al ( , 2013 parent-infant interactions were coded with an ad-hoc coding scheme (the Manchester Assessment of Caregiver Infant Interaction) during 6 min of unstructured play interaction.…”