Variability in Responding to Joint Attention Cues in the First Year is Associated With Autism Outcome

Stallworthy, Isabella C.; Lasch, Carolyn; Berry, Daniel; Wolff, Jason J.; Pruett, John R.; Marrus, Natasha; Swanson, Meghan R.; Botteron, Kelly N.; Dager, Stephen R.; Estes, Annette; Hazlett, Heather C.; Schultz, Robert T.; Zwaigenbaum, Lonnie; Piven, Joseph; Elison, Jed T.

doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2021.03.023

Cited by 21 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…It a basic, fundamental and well-conserved social attention function across species ( 82 ). Symptoms associated with attenuated gaze following and RJA appear in infant siblings can be measured by 9 months of age ( 106 ) and, more attention to gaze shifts at 8 months is related to lower ASD symptom development ( 89 ).…”

Section: The Timing Of the Development Of Social Orienting And Joint ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Bidirectional Social-Cognitive Mechanisms of the Social-Attention Symptoms of Autism

Mundy

Bullen

2022

Front. Psychiatry

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Differences in social attention development begin to be apparent in the 6th to 12th month of development in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and theoretically reflect important elements of its neurodevelopmental endophenotype. This paper examines alternative conceptual views of these early social attention symptoms and hypotheses about the mechanisms involved in their development. One model emphasizes mechanism involved in the spontaneous allocation of attention to faces, or social orienting. Alternatively, another model emphasizes mechanisms involved in the coordination of attention with other people, or joint attention, and the socially bi-directional nature of its development. This model raises the possibility that atypical responses of children to the attention or the gaze of a social partner directed toward themselves may be as important in the development of social attention symptoms as differences in the development of social orienting. Another model holds that symptoms of social attention may be important to early development, but may not impact older individuals with ASD. The alterative model is that the social attention symptoms in infancy (social orienting and joint attention), and social cognitive symptoms in childhood and adulthood share common neurodevelopmental substrates. Therefore, differences in early social attention and later social cognition constitute a developmentally continuous axis of symptom presentation in ASD. However, symptoms in older individuals may be best measured with in vivo measures of efficiency of social attention and social cognition in social interactions rather than the accuracy of response on analog tests used in measures with younger children. Finally, a third model suggests that the social attention symptoms may not truly be a symptom of ASD. Rather, they may be best conceptualized as stemming from differences domain general attention and motivation mechanisms. The alternative argued for here that infant social attention symptoms meet all the criteria of a unique dimension of the phenotype of ASD and the bi-directional phenomena involved in social attention cannot be fully explained in terms of domain general aspects of attention development.

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Section: The Timing Of the Development Of Social Orienting And Joint ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Bidirectional Social-Cognitive Mechanisms of the Social-Attention Symptoms of Autism

Mundy

Bullen

2022

Front. Psychiatry

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“…This strategy is only recommended if recordings have adequate capture of infant and administrator movements and looking (e.g., can see infants turn their head or otherwise shift gaze). The mean DJAA score has previously been found to have an inter-rater reliability ICC of 0.98 (Stallworthy, Lasch, et al, 2022), including in-vivo versus post-administration scoring. While administered in a lab setting at all visits in this study, the DJAA has also been successfully administered in medical clinics at well-child visits (Reilly et al, 2021), highlighting its adaptability and naturalistic format.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responding to joint attention as a developmental catalyst: Longitudinal associations with language and social responsiveness

Lasch

Carlson

Elison

2022

Infancy

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Joint attention (JA), infants' ability to engage in triadic attention with another person and a separate object or event, emerges in infancy. Responding to joint attention (RJA) develops earlier than initiating joint attention (IJA) and may benefit from a reconceptualization from a competence to a skill that varies in performance. Investigating associations between RJA performance and important skills of toddlerhood such as language, social responsiveness, and executive function (EF) in typically developing samples can better elucidate how RJA may serve as a developmental precursor to later dimensional skills, with implications for both typical and atypical development. Here, 210 (82% White) infants completed the Dimensional Joint Attention Assessment (DJAA), a naturalistic play‐based assessment of RJA, at 8–15 months. At 16–38 months social responsiveness, verbal ability, and EF were assessed. Multilevel models showed that DJAA scores were associated with later verbal abilities and parent‐reported social responsiveness. Exploratory analyses showed trend‐level associations between RJA and EF. Results establish the content validity of the DJAA as a measure of RJA, and longitudinal associations with later verbal ability and social responsiveness. Future work should examine EF emergence and consolidation, and RJA and later EF associations.

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“…Given the high heritability associated with ASD, younger siblings of children with the disorder are at a significantly elevated likelihood for receiving a diagnosis relative to the general population (Constantino et al, 2010; Ozonoff et al, 2011). While the reliability and stability of ASD diagnosis prior to 18 months is essentially unknown (Chawarska et al, 2007; Guthrie et al, 2013), a growing body of evidence suggests that early risk markers of ASD are observable by the end of the first year of life (Miller et al, 2017; Ozonoff et al, 2010; Stallworthy et al, 2021; Zwaigenbaum et al, 2021). Thus, prospectively studying infant siblings of autistic children is a valuable method to enhance our understanding of early emerging features of, and developmental trajectories associated with, ASD.…”

Section: Study N 6–10 Months 12–14 Months Su/pe Ne Rc Su/pe Ne Rcmentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining the factor structure and discriminative utility of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire–Revised in infant siblings of autistic children

et al. 2022

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Using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire–Revised in a longitudinal sample of infant siblings of autistic children (HR; n = 427, 171 female, 83.4% White) and a comparison group of low‐risk controls (LR, n = 200, 86 female, 81.5% White), collected between 2007 and 2017, this study identified an invariant factor structure of temperament traits across groups at 6 and 12 months. Second, after partitioning the groups by familial risk and diagnostic outcome at 24 months, results reveal an endophenotypic pattern of Positive Emotionality at both 6 and 12 months, (HR‐autism spectrum disorder [ASD] < HR‐no‐ASD < LR). Third, increased ‘Duration of Orienting’ at 12 months was associated with lower scores on the 24‐month developmental outcomes in HR infants. These findings may augment efforts for early identification of ASD.

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Variability in Responding to Joint Attention Cues in the First Year is Associated With Autism Outcome

Cited by 21 publications

References 42 publications

The Bidirectional Social-Cognitive Mechanisms of the Social-Attention Symptoms of Autism

The Bidirectional Social-Cognitive Mechanisms of the Social-Attention Symptoms of Autism

Responding to joint attention as a developmental catalyst: Longitudinal associations with language and social responsiveness

Examining the factor structure and discriminative utility of the Infant Behavior Questionnaire–Revised in infant siblings of autistic children

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