Growth Trajectories of Joint Attention and Play as Predictors for Language in Young Children at Elevated Likelihood for Autism.

This longitudinal study investigated the predictive value of initial level and growth rate of joint attention and play from 10 to 24 months for language abilities of 24-month-old toddlers at elevated likelihood (EL) for autism. (Semi-)structured assessments were used to measure all variables at different timepoints prospectively in younger siblings of children with autism (siblings, n = 48) and children born before 30 gestational weeks (preterms, n = 49). A positive association was found between initial level of play at 10 months and expressive language at 24 months in siblings, but not in preterms.

Investigating the Predictive Validity of the Quantitative Checklist for Autism in Toddlers and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 in Children at Elevated Likelihood for Autism.

This study examined the recurrence rate of autism in siblings at elevated likelihood (EL) and the predictive validity of the Q-CHAT and ADOS-2 at 14 and 24 months (m) for a clinical best estimate (CBE) autism diagnosis at 3 years. 331 EL-siblings (47.9% girls) from the prospective longitudinal EuroSibs study underwent ADOS-2 assessments and caregivers completed the Q-CHAT at 14 m and 24 m.

and in autism: The case of hesitation marker usage in Dutch-speaking autistic preschoolers.

English-speaking autistic children use the hesitation marker less often than non-autistic children but use at a similar rate. It is unclear why this is the case. We employed a sample of Dutch-speaking children from the Preschool Brain Imaging and Behavior Project to examine hesitation markers in autistic and non-autistic preschoolers with the aim to 1) make a crosslinguistic comparison of hesitation marker usage and 2) examine hypotheses regarding the underlying linguistic mechanisms of hesitation markers: the symptom hypothesis and the signal hypothesis.

Neural correlates of response to joint attention in 2-to-5-year-olds in relation to ASD and social-communicative abilities: An fNIRS and behavioral study.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with life-long challenges with social cognition, and one of its earliest and most common manifestations is atypical joint attention, which is a pivotal skill in social-cognitive and linguistic development. Early interventions for ASD children often focus on training initiation of joint attention (IJA) and response to joint attention bids (RJA), which are important for social communication and cognition. Here, we used functional near-infrared spectroscopy and behavioral measures to test typically developing (TD, n = 17) and ASD children (n = 18), to address the relationship between the neural correlates of RJA and social-communicative behavior.