Early Gesture and Vocabulary Development in Infant Siblings of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Jana M Iverson, Jessie B Northrup, Nina B Leezenbaum and 3 others
PMID 28900778WHAT IT FOUND
Infants with an older sibling with autism who were later diagnosed themselves looked similar to low-risk infants at 8 months, but their gesture and word growth slowed and fell behind by 9 to 11 months.
A single early check can miss this.
Key findings
01Infants later diagnosed with autism showed slower early gesture growth than low-risk infants, and scores differed by 9 months.
02Infants later diagnosed with autism showed slower growth in words produced, and percentile scores differed from low-risk infants by 11 months.
03High-risk infants with language delay but not autism had fewer early gestures than low-risk infants at 8 months, but by 14 months their early gesture scores were generally comparable to high-risk infants with no diagnosis.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 14 infants were classified as having autism spectrum disorder, so the autism outcome group was small. Gesture and vocabulary data came from parent report, and parents may differ in how they notice and report early gestures and word understanding. Word comprehension had especially large variability within groups, so individual scores are hard to interpret. The study did not analyze which specific gestures or words were reported, so it cannot say whether the content of gesture and vocabulary differed. Parents of high-risk infants may be more alert to communication signs than parents of low-risk infants. This could affect what they report. Only nine low-risk infants were followed through 24 months, and low-risk infants did not receive the same standardized developmental assessments or outcome measures as the high-risk infants.
Declared interests
The authors declared that they have no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that a normal-looking early communication check at 8 months means a high-risk infant is not at risk for later autism. Infants later diagnosed with autism had similar scores to low-risk infants at 8 months, but their growth slowed and differences appeared by 9 to 11 months.