From Using Tools to Using Language in Infant Siblings of Children with Autism.
Laura Sparaci, Jessie B Northrup, Olga Capirci and 1 others
PMID 29429008WHAT IT FOUND
High-risk infants who used a spoon functionally at 10 months had better word comprehension at 12 months and word production at 24 and 36 months.
Infants later diagnosed with autism showed delayed emergence of these functional actions compared to those without diagnosis.
Key findings
01Functional actions with a spoon at 10 months significantly predicted word comprehension at 12 months and word production at 24 and 36 months.
02Infants later diagnosed with autism did not produce functional spoon actions at 10 months, unlike high-risk infants who did not develop autism or language delay.
03By 24 months, infants later diagnosed with autism produced significantly fewer grasp types that facilitate functional tool use compared to high-risk infants with no delay.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study included only high-risk infants (siblings of children with autism) and lacked a low-risk control group, so findings cannot be generalized to the typical infant population. Each infant performed the spoon task only once per visit, which may not capture variability in their abilities. The sample size was small (41 infants), limiting the statistical power to detect differences between some subgroups, particularly between the language-delay and autism groups. The population was primarily Caucasian and highly educated, which may limit the applicability of these findings to more diverse families.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the lack of functional spoon actions at 10 months as a definitive diagnosis of autism. This is a high-risk sibling cohort study, and many infants in the autism group eventually caught up in their motor skills. The finding indicates a statistical association and a potential early marker, not a standalone diagnostic tool.