Early emergence of discrepancy in adaptive behavior and cognitive skills in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder.
Jessica Bradshaw, Scott Gillespie, Cheryl Klaiman and 2 others
PMID 30525959WHAT IT FOUND
Toddlers with autism or subthreshold autism features and average nonverbal cognition increasingly scored below average on adaptive socialization and daily living by 36 months, while cognitive scores stayed stable.
The gap appeared early.
Key findings
01By 36 months, 38% of toddlers with ASD or BAP who had average cognition had below average adaptive socialization, versus 14% of unaffected high-risk or low-risk toddlers.
02By 36 months, 50% of toddlers with ASD or BAP who had average cognition had below average daily living skills, versus 34.5% of unaffected high-risk or low-risk toddlers.
03Cognitive scores stayed stable from 12 to 36 months, while adaptive socialization scores declined, especially in toddlers with ASD or BAP.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The analyses were exploratory and did not adjust the significance tests, so some differences may not be stable. The sample was small for comparing autism and subthreshold autism groups, and the authors call for replication with larger samples. Low-risk toddlers were followed only to 24 months, so their 36-month trajectories were not directly measured. The high-risk sample came from sibling studies and highly educated families, so the findings may not apply to clinically referred or community samples. Diagnoses were made using clinical best estimate based partly on the same Mullen and Vineland data used as outcomes. The Vineland-II norms may be outdated, and typical toddlers also showed declining socialization scores, so some score drops may reflect the measure rather than real change.
Declared interests
The publication types list N.I.H. extramural and non-U.S. government research support. The supplied text does not include an author conflict-of-interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that any therapy can prevent the adaptive gap. This was an observational study of assessment trajectories, not an intervention trial, and it did not test whether therapy changes adaptive skills.