Correction to: Brief Report: Use of the Infant-Toddler Checklist in Infant Siblings of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The original version of the article unfortunately contained a mistake in the Results and Discussion section. The corrected sentences are given below: 1. In the Results section (paragraph 2): “The psychometric values were moderate, with strongest indices at 24 months: SE = 78% (95% CI 64–91%), SP = 83% (95% CI 78–89%), PPV = 52% (95% CI 40–65%), and NPV = 94% (95% CI 90–98%)." Instead should say, “SE = 77% (95% CI 64–90%), SP = 85% (95% CI 80-91%), PPV = 55% (95% CI 42–68%), and NPV = 94% (95% CI 90–98%)”. 2. In the Discussion section (paragraph 2), “Longitudinally, SE ranged from 52 to 63% and SP from 42 to 83% in our study.” Instead should say, “Longitudinally, SE ranged from 51 to 62% and SP from 42 to 85% in our study”

Differentially Private Generative Adversarial Networks with Model Inversion

To protect sensitive data in training a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN), the standard approach is to use differentially private (DP) stochastic gradient descent method in which controlled noise is added to the gradients. The quality of the output synthetic samples can be adversely affected and the training of the network may not even converge in the presence of these noises. We propose Differentially Private Model Inversion (DPMI) method where the private data is first mapped to the latent space via a public generator, followed by a lower-dimensional DP-GAN with better convergent properties. Experimental results on standard datasets CIFAR10 and SVHN as well as on a facial landmark dataset for Autism screening show that our approach outperforms the standard DP-GAN method based on Inception Score, Fr\'echet Inception Distance, and classification accuracy under the same privacy guarantee.Comment: Best Student Paper Award of 13th IEEE International Workshop on Information Forensics and Security (WIFS 2021), Montpellier, Franc

Utility of the Language Use Inventory in Young Children at Elevated Likelihood of Autism

PurposeThe aims of this study were (a) to evaluate the convergent validity of the Language Use Inventory (LUI) with measures of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) symptoms, language, and social skills and (b) to assess discriminant validity of the LUI with measures of nonlanguage skills, including daily living skills and motor development.MethodThis study sample included participants from a longitudinal study (n = 239) of infant siblings with elevated familial likelihood of ASD and lower familial likelihood. Assessment measures completed at 36 months included the LUI, the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Second Edition (ADOS-2), the Mullen Scales of Early Learning, and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-Second Edition. Bivariate Pearson correlations were estimated between ADOS-2 comparison scores and four language and social skills measures. Additional correlations were estimated between LUI total scores and standard scores from nonlanguage measures. A series of Fisher's Z transformations were applied to evaluate whether bivariate correlations were significantly different.ResultsAll four language and social skill measures were moderately to strongly associated with each other and ASD symptom severity scores. The correlation between ADOS-2 comparison scores and LUI total scores was significantly stronger than ADOS-2 correlations with all other measures.ConclusionsOur findings provide support for the LUI as a feasible, pragmatic language-targeted instrument for inclusion in early developmental evaluations prompted by language concerns. Administration of the LUI may accelerate earlier referral for a comprehensive assessment of ASD symptoms. Given the high correlation with ADOS-2 scores, an LUI total score in a clinical range of concern may encourage a clinician to refer families for a full diagnostic evaluation of ASD

Sibling sleep-What can it tell us about parental sleep reports in the context of autism?

Sleep problems are common in families raising children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Clinicians often depend on parent reports of child sleep but minimal research exists to address the accuracy or biases in these reports. To isolate parent-report accuracy (from differences in sleep behaviors), the sleep of younger siblings were assessed within a two-group design. The present study compared parent diary reports of infant sibling sleep to videosomnography and actigraphy. In the high-risk group, families had at least one child with ASD and a younger sibling (n = 33). The low-risk comparison group had no family history of ASD (n = 42). We confirmed comparable sleep behaviors between the groups and used paired t tests, two-one-sided-tests (TOST), and Bland-Altman plots to assess parent report accuracy. The parameters of sleep onset, nighttime sleep duration, awakenings, morning rise time, and daytime sleep duration were evaluated. Diary and videosomnography estimates were comparable for nighttime sleep duration, morning rise time, and awakenings for both groups. Diary and actigraph estimates were less comparable for both groups. Daytime sleep duration estimates had the largest discrepancy with both groups reporting (on average) 40 additional minutes of sleep when compared to actigraphy estimates. In the present study, families raising children with ASD were just as accurate as other families when reporting infant sleep behaviors. Our findings have direct clinical implications and support the use of parent nighttime sleep reports

Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder After Age 5 in Children Evaluated Longitudinally Since Infancy

ObjectiveThe diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been found to be remarkably stable but few studies have followed children not initially diagnosed with ASD beyond 3 years of age to examine late or delayed diagnoses. The present study used a prospective familial-risk design to identify children who had undergone multiple comprehensive assessments in preschool and were determined to be negative for ASD only to meet criteria for ASD when tested in middle childhood.MethodData were pooled across 3 research teams studying later-born siblings of children with ASD. Fourteen children met inclusion criteria for the late-diagnosed group and were compared with a large sample of high- and low-risk siblings from the same sites who had ASD or typical development (TD) outcomes at 3 years of age.ResultsAs a group, the late-diagnosed children scored between the TD and ASD groups on most measures administered at 3 years and differed significantly from the ASD group on most measures. However, there was significant heterogeneity among the late-diagnosed cases. Seven showed very little evidence of ASD in preschool, whereas 7 demonstrated subtle, subthreshold symptomatology.ConclusionSome children with ASD might present with a subtle phenotype early in life or show a prolonged time course of symptom development. This emphasizes the need for screening and surveillance schedules that extend past 36 months and continued evaluation of any child who presents with atypical early development and/or high-risk status. The findings also shed light on reasons why the mean age of ASD diagnosis remains older than 4 years

Dyadic Synchrony and Responsiveness in the First Year: Associations with Autism Risk

In the first year of life, the ability to engage in sustained synchronous interactions develops as infants learn to match social partner behaviors and sequentially regulate their behaviors in response to others. Difficulties developing competence in these early social building blocks can impact later language skills, joint attention, and emotion regulation. For children at elevated risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), early dyadic synchrony and responsiveness difficulties may be indicative of emerging ASD and/or developmental concerns. As part of a prospective developmental monitoring study, infant siblings of children with ASD (high-risk group n = 104) or typical development (low-risk group n = 71), and their mothers completed a standardized play task when infants were 6, 9, and/or 12 months of age. These interactions were coded for the frequency and duration of infant and mother gaze, positive affect, and vocalizations, respectively. Using these codes, theory-driven composites were created to index dyadic synchrony and infant/maternal responsiveness. Multilevel models revealed significant risk group differences in dyadic synchrony and infant responsiveness by 12 months of age. In addition, high-risk infants with higher dyadic synchrony and infant responsiveness at 12 months received significantly higher receptive and expressive language scores at 36 months. The findings of the present study highlight that promoting dyadic synchrony and responsiveness may aid in advancing optimal development in children at elevated risk for autism. Lay Summary: In families raising children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD), younger siblings are at elevated risks for social communication difficulties. The present study explored whether social-communication differences were evident during a parent–child play task at 6, 9, and 12 months of age. For infant siblings of children with ASD, social differences during play were observed by 12 months of age and may inform ongoing monitoring and intervention efforts

Gross Motor Development, Movement Abnormalities, and Early Identification of Autism

Gross motor development (supine, prone, rolling, sitting, crawling, walking) and movement abnormalities were examined in the home videos of infants later diagnosed with autism (regression and no regression subgroups), developmental delays (DD), or typical development. Group differences in maturity were found for walking, prone, and supine, with the DD and Autism-No Regression groups both showing later developing motor maturity than typical children. The only statistically significant differences in movement abnormalities were in the DD group; the two autism groups did not differ from the typical group in rates of movement abnormalities or lack of protective responses. These findings do not replicate previous investigations suggesting that early motor abnormalities seen on home video can assist in early identification of autism

Self-reported pregnancy exposures and placental DNA methylation in the MARBLES prospective autism sibling study.

Human placenta is a fetal-derived tissue that offers a unique sample of epigenetic and environmental exposures present in utero. In the MARBLES prospective pregnancy study of high-risk younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), pregnancy and environmental factors collected by maternal interviews were examined as predictors of placental DNA methylation, including partially methylated domains (PMDs), an embryonic feature of the placental methylome. DNA methylation data from MethylC-seq analysis of 47 placentas of children clinically diagnosed at 3 years with ASD or typical development using standardized assessments were examined in relation to: child's gestational age, birth-weight, and diagnosis; maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index, smoking, education, parity, height, prenatal vitamin and folate intake; home ownership; pesticides professionally applied to lawns or gardens or inside homes, pet flea/tick pouches, collars, or soaps/shampoos used in the 3 months prior to or during pregnancy. Sequencing run, order, and coverage, and child race and sex were considered as potential confounders. Akaike information criterion was used to select the most parsimonious among candidate models. Final prediction models used sandwich estimators to produce homoscadisticity-robust estimates of the 95% confidence interval (CI) and P-values controlled the false discovery rate at 5%. The strongest, most robust associations were between pesticides professionally applied outside the home and higher average methylation over PMDs [0.45 (95% CI 0.17, 0.72), P = 0.03] and a reduced proportion of the genome in PMDs [-0.42 (95% CI - 0.67 to -0.17), P = 0.03]. Pesticide exposures could alter placental DNA methylation more than other factors

Social orienting and initiated joint attention behaviors in 9 to 12 month old children with autism spectrum disorder: A family home movies study

According to the Social Motivation model children with autism show deficits in social orienting (looking at faces and responding to name) at the end of their first year of life. In this model, those deficits are both the earliest behavioral consequences of an alteration in the dopamine reward system balance and the foundation of the social impairments that characterize this neurodevelopmental disorder. The current study tests two of the main predictions of this model: that social orienting deficits are the first behavioral manifestation of autism, and that they are developmentally related to joint attention deficits. We retrospectively analyzed family home movies of 9- to 12-month-old infants, 29 of whom were later diagnosed with autism and 16 of whom were typically developing. After confirming that the videotapes of both groups were similar in content of the scenes recorded (contexts, type of social activity, etc.), we compared their social orienting (social gaze and responding to name) and joint attention behaviors (gaze alternation and gestures). No significant differences between groups were found in looking at faces, but the group with autism showed deficits in responding to name and initiations of joint attention (IJA). Looking at people was not significantly correlated with IJA behaviors, but response to name was. The lack of group differences in looking at faces between 9 and 12 months, and the existence of IJA difficulties in the ASD group without concurrent impairment in looking at faces, do not support predictions of the Social Motivation model