Are early social communication skills a harbinger for language development in infants later diagnosed autistic?—A longitudinal study using a standardized social communication assessment

The early emergence of social communication challenges and their impact on language in infants later diagnosed with autism has sparked many early intervention programs that target social communication skills. While research has consistently shown lower scores on social communication assessments in the first year of life, there is limited research at 12-months exploring associations between different dimensions of social communication and later language. Understanding associations between early social communication skills and language would enhance our ability to choose high priority intervention goals that will impact downstream language skills. The current study used a standardized assessment to profile social communication skills across 516 infants with a high (HL) or low likelihood (LL-Neg) for autism (84% White, 60% Male), based on the presence of a sibling with autism in the family. The primary aim of the study was to profile social communication skill development in the second year of life and to evaluate associations between social communication skills and later language. HL infants who met criteria for autism (HL-ASD, N = 81) demonstrated widespread reductions in social communication skills at 12-months compared to HL infants who did not meet criteria for autism (HL-Neg, N = 277) and LL-Neg (N = 158) infants. Across all infants in the study, those with better social communication skills at 12-months had better language at 24-months. However, within group analyses indicated that infants who met criteria for autism did not show this developmental coupling until 24-months-of-age at which point social communication was positively associated with downstream language skills. The cascading pattern of reduced social communication skills as well as overall significant positive associations with later language provide further evidence for the need to support developing social communication skills prior to formal autism diagnosis, a goal that could possibly be reached through pre-emptive interventions

Language delay aggregates in toddler siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder

Abstract Background Language delay is extremely common in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), yet it is unclear whether measurable variation in early language is associated with genetic liability for ASD. Assessment of language development in unaffected siblings of children with ASD can inform whether decreased early language ability aggregates with inherited risk for ASD and serves as an ASD endophenotype. Methods We implemented two approaches: (1) a meta-analysis of studies comparing language delay, a categorical indicator of language function, and language scores, a continuous metric, in unaffected toddlers at high and low familial risk for ASD, and (2) a parallel analysis of 350 unaffected 24-month-olds in the Infant Brain Imaging Study (IBIS), a prospective study of infants at high and low familial risk for ASD. An advantage of the former was its detection of group differences from pooled data across unique samples; an advantage of the latter was its sensitivity in quantifying early manifestations of language delay while accounting for covariates within a single large sample. Results Meta-analysis showed that high-risk siblings without ASD (HR-noASD) were three to four times more likely to exhibit language delay versus low-risk siblings without ASD (LR-noASD) and had lower mean receptive and expressive language scores. Analyses of IBIS data corroborated that language delay, specifically receptive language delay, was more frequent in the HR-noASD (n = 235) versus LR-noASD group (n = 115). IBIS language scores were continuously and unimodally distributed, with a pathological shift towards decreased language function in HR-noASD siblings. The elevated inherited risk for ASD was associated with lower receptive and expressive language scores when controlling for sociodemographic factors. For receptive but not expressive language, the effect of risk group remained significant even when controlling for nonverbal cognition. Conclusions Greater frequency of language delay and a lower distribution of language scores in high-risk, unaffected toddler-aged siblings support decreased early language ability as an endophenotype for ASD, with a more pronounced effect for receptive versus expressive language. Further characterization of language development is warranted to refine genetic investigations of ASD and to elucidate factors influencing the progression of core autistic traits and related symptoms

Data_Sheet_1_Are early social communication skills a harbinger for language development in infants later diagnosed autistic?—A longitudinal study using a standardized social communication assessment.PDF

The early emergence of social communication challenges and their impact on language in infants later diagnosed with autism has sparked many early intervention programs that target social communication skills. While research has consistently shown lower scores on social communication assessments in the first year of life, there is limited research at 12-months exploring associations between different dimensions of social communication and later language. Understanding associations between early social communication skills and language would enhance our ability to choose high priority intervention goals that will impact downstream language skills. The current study used a standardized assessment to profile social communication skills across 516 infants with a high (HL) or low likelihood (LL-Neg) for autism (84% White, 60% Male), based on the presence of a sibling with autism in the family. The primary aim of the study was to profile social communication skill development in the second year of life and to evaluate associations between social communication skills and later language. HL infants who met criteria for autism (HL-ASD, N = 81) demonstrated widespread reductions in social communication skills at 12-months compared to HL infants who did not meet criteria for autism (HL-Neg, N = 277) and LL-Neg (N = 158) infants. Across all infants in the study, those with better social communication skills at 12-months had better language at 24-months. However, within group analyses indicated that infants who met criteria for autism did not show this developmental coupling until 24-months-of-age at which point social communication was positively associated with downstream language skills. The cascading pattern of reduced social communication skills as well as overall significant positive associations with later language provide further evidence for the need to support developing social communication skills prior to formal autism diagnosis, a goal that could possibly be reached through pre-emptive interventions.</p

Hib vaccine in India: A case for universal immunization

No abstract available