Emerging research seeks to improve detection of autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) among high-risk kids, in hopes that early intervention will lead to better outcomes in the future
Researchers say that 19 percent of children with a sibling diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) will develop autism due to shared genetic and environmental vulnerabilities.
In a new study, University of Miami (UM) scientists discovered measures of non-verbal communication in children, as young as eight months of age, which predicted autism symptoms (that became evident by the third year of life).
Their findings are published in the journal Infancy.
The results suggest that identifying children, who are having difficulties early enough, can enhance the effects of interventions.
“For children at risk of developing an ASD, specific communication-oriented interventions during the first years of life can lessen the severity of autism’s impact,” says Daniel Messinger, professor of Psychology and principal investigator of the study.
Before children learn to talk, they communicate non-verbally by using eye contact and gestures. These abilities are called referential communication and are in development by eight months of age. However, “impairments in non-verbal referential communication are characteristic of older children with ASD,” says Caroline Grantz, co-author of the paper.
For the study, researchers tested two groups of children. One group was at high-risk for ASD and the second group was at low-risk.
The evaluations took place during 15 to 20 minutes sessions, at 8, 10, 12, 15 and 18 months of life. The team measured the development of three forms of non-verbal communication:
“Overall, infants with the lowest rates of IJA at eight months showed lower social engagement with an examiner at 30 months of age,” said Lisa Ibañez, Ph.D., first author of the paper.
Source: University of Miami