Early preventive intervention for young children with sex chromosome trisomies (XXX, XXY, XYY): supporting social cognitive development using a neurocognitive training program targeting facial emotion understanding

Education and Child Studie

The impact of sex chromosome trisomies (XXX, XXY, XYY) on early social cognition: social orienting, joint attention, and theory of mind

Objective: About 1:650–1,000 children are born with an extra X or Y chromosome (XXX; XXY; XYY), which results in a sex chromosome trisomy (SCT). This study aims to cross-sectionally investigate the impact of SCT on early social cognitive skills. Basic orienting toward social cues, joint attention, and theory of mind (ToM) in young children with SCT were evaluated. Method: About 105 children with SCT (range: 1–7 years old) were included in this study, as well as 96 age-matched nonclinical controls. Eyetracking paradigms were used to investigate the eye gaze patterns indicative of joint attention skills and orienting to social interactions. The ToM abilities were measured using the subtest ToM of the Developmental NEuroPSYchological Assessment, second edition, neuropsychological test battery. Recruitment and assessment took place in the Netherlands and in the United States. Results: Eyetracking results revealed difficulties in children with SCT in social orienting. These difficulties were more pronounced in children aged 3 years and older, and in boys with 47,XYY. Difficulties in joint attention were found over all age groups and karyotypes. Children with SCT showed impairments in ToM (26.3% in the [well] below expected level), increasing with age. These impairments did not differ between karyotypes. Conclusions: An impact of SCT on social cognitive abilities was found already at an early age, indicating the need for early monitoring and support of early social cognition. Future research should explore the longitudinal trajectories of social development in order to evaluate the predictive relationships between social cognition and outcome later in life in terms of social functioning and the risk for psychopathology.NWO016.165.397Development Psychopathology in context: clinical setting

Physiological Arousal and Emotion Regulation Strategies in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Development Psychopathology in context: clinical setting

Effectiveness of social management training on executive functions in males with Klinefelter syndrome (47, XXY)

Education and Child Studie

Characteristics of children in foster care, family-style group care, and residential care: A scoping review

Development Psychopathology in context: clinical setting

Emotional reactivity and expressivity in young children with sex chromosome trisomies: evidence from psychophysiological and observational data

Education and Child Studie

The impact of sex chromosome trisomies (XXX, XXY, XYY) on gaze towards faces and afect recognition: a cross-sectional eye tracking study

Background: About 1:650–1000 children are born with an extra X or Y chromosome (47,XXX; 47,XXY; 47,XYY), which results in a sex chromosome trisomy (SCT). This international cross-sectional study was designed to investigate gaze towards faces and afect recognition during early life of children with SCT, with the aim to fnd indicators for support and treatment. Methods: A group of 101 children with SCT (aged 1–7 years old; Mage= 3.7 years) was included in this study, as well as a population-based sample of 98 children without SCT (Mage= 3.7). Eye gaze patterns to faces were measured using an eye tracking method that quantifes frst fxations and fxation durations on eyes of static faces and fxation durations on eyes and faces in a dynamic paradigm (with two conditions: single face and multiple faces). Affect recognition was measured using the subtest Affect Recognition of the NEPSY-II neuropsychological test battery. Recruitment and assessment took place in the Netherlands and the USA. Results: Eye tracking results reveal that children with SCT show lower proportion fxation duration on faces already from the age of 3 years, compared to children without SCT. Also, impairments in the clinical range for afect recognition were found (32.2% of the SCT group scored in the well below average range). Conclusions: These results highlight the importance to further explore the development of social cognitive skills of children with SCT in a longitudinal design, the monitoring of afect recognition skills, and the implementation of (preventive) interventions aiming to support the development of attention to social important information and afect recognition.Development Psychopathology in context: clinical setting

Early social behavior in young children with sex chromosome trisomies (XXX, XXY, XYY): profiles of observed social interactions and social impairments associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

Individuals with Sex Chromosome Trisomies (SCT; XXX, XXY, XYY) have an increased vulnerability for developing challenges in social adaptive functioning. The present study investigates social interaction behavior in the context of varying social load, and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) symptomatology in young children aged 1–7.5 years old, with SCT (N=105) and control children (N=101). Children with SCT show less interaction behaviors and more social withdrawal, as compared to their control peers, which were most evident in the high social load condition. Second, social impairments related to ASD are more prevalent, as compared to controls (27.1% at clinical level). These fndings stress the importance of early monitoring and (preventive) support of early social development in young children with SCT.Development Psychopathology in context: clinical setting

Early impact of X- and Y-chromosome variations (XXX, XXY, XYY) on social communication and social emotional development in 1–2-year-old children

Sex chromosome trisomies (SCTs) are characterized by an extra X- or Y-chromosome(XXX, XXY, XYY). The present study aims to investigate early signs of social communica-tion and social emotional development in veryyoung children with SCT. Thirty-four chil-dren with SCT (aged 12–24 months) were included in this study, as well as 31 age-matched controls. Social communication was measured with structured behavior observa-tions according to the Early Social Communication Scales, and social emotional develop-mental level with the Bayley Social Emotional parental questionnaire. Recruitment andassessment took place in the Netherlands and in the United States. On average, 12–24-montholdchildrenwithSCTshoweddifficulties with early social communication, moreso in responding to others as compared to initiating social communications. During socialinteractions, children with SCT made less frequent eye contact, compared to controls.Also, difficulties in acquiring social emotional milestones were found in 1-year old childrenwith SCT, with 44% of the children having socialemotional vulnerabilities in the borderlineor extremely low range, compared to typicallydeveloping children. In this cohort, no sig-nificant predictive effects of karyotype-subtype (XXX, XXY, XYY) were found. Alreadyfrom a very early age, SCT can be associated with increased risk for vulnerabilities in adap-tive social functioning. These findings suggest that SCT impact the maturation of the socialbrain already from an early age, and stress the importance of early monitoring and (pre-ventive) support early social development in young children with SCT.Development Psychopathology in context: clinical setting