Response to name and its value for the early detection of developmental disorders: Insights from autism spectrum disorder, Rett syndrome, and fragile X syndrome. A perspectives paper.
Dajie Zhang, Laura Roche, Katrin D Bartl-Pokorny and 8 others
PMID 29655507WHAT IT FOUND
Infants later diagnosed with developmental disorders often respond less to their name, especially after 9 months.
This paper says a poor name response is not proof of autism or any single disorder, but should alert clinicians to assess other early social signs.
Key findings
01Twenty-one reviewed studies reported atypical response to name in children with developmental disorders.
02Atypical response to name was not uniquely associated with autism spectrum disorder.
03In the small new video analysis, infants later diagnosed with Rett syndrome had the lowest response-to-name rate across the age periods studied.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat 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 23 reviewed studies used different RtN assessments, ages, and comparison groups, so the results are not directly comparable. The new video analysis had small samples and reported only descriptive data, so it does not show how well RtN detects any disorder. Atypical RtN was not unique to autism, and some typically developing infants or infants with other developmental conditions also failed RtN tasks at times. RtN assessed before the end of the first year may not predict later development, because one study found better RtN in high-risk infants at 4 months. The Rett syndrome comparison lacked a control group.
Declared interests
No funding or conflict-of-interest statement is provided in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat a poor response to name as evidence of autism or as a standalone diagnostic test. The reviewed studies and the new video data found atypical name response in several disorders and in some typically developing infants, and the authors say it must be read with other social signs.