Early Observation of Red Flags in 12-Month-Old Infant Siblings Later Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Purpose Valid and reliable screening tools are needed to improve early detection and optimize developmental outcomes for toddlers at risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current study aimed to evaluate the utility of the Systematic Observation of Red Flags (SORF) for ASD at 12 months of age in a sample of high-risk infant siblings of children with ASD. Method As part of a prospective, longitudinal study, we examined the sensitivity and specificity of the SORF at 12 months for predicting a diagnosis of ASD at 24 months in a sample of 122 infants, 31 of whom were diagnosed with ASD. Results The optimal SORF Composite cutoff score of 18 correctly identified 24 of the 31 twelve-month-olds who were diagnosed with ASD, yielding a sensitivity of .77 and a specificity of .76. The optimal SORF Red Flags cutoff score of 7 correctly identified 20 of the 31 infants, yielding a sensitivity of .65 and a specificity of .75. Conclusion This preliminary study demonstrates the potential of the SORF as an effective observational screening measure for 12-month-olds at risk for ASD with good discrimination, sensitivity, and specificity

Canonical babbling trajectories across the first year of life in autism and typical development

This study explores vocal development as an early marker of autism, focusing on canonical babbling (CB) rate and onset, typically established by seven months. Previous reports suggested delayed or reduced CB in infants later diagnosed with autism, but the story may be complicated. We present a prospective study on 44 infants later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared with 127 infants later identified as typically developing (TD) who were followed longitudinally with day-long recordings from 0-13 months. Eight 5-minute segments from each of their recordings were coded for canonical and non-canonical syllables. The results confirmed many reports that CB is a robust feature of human vocal development in the first year of life, with small overall mean differences in CB rates between the ASD and TD groups beginning around 9 months, primarily in males. Our findings highlight the importance of considering sex differences in vocal communication as part of the early detection and diagnosis of autism when determining the need for communication supports to maximize outcomes