Scaling of Early Social Cognitive Skills in Typically Developing Infants and Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The autism group was small: 21 children were analysed, so the scaling result needs replication before it can be treated as stable. The autism and typically developing groups were not matched, and the autism group was older in chronological age and had intellectual disability. There was no comparison group of children with intellectual disability without autism, so autism-specific differences could not be separated from general developmental delay. The Seeing-is-knowing task was removed because only 31 children (36%) passed it, which was lower than expected and may reflect changes to the toys. Some data were missing or not comparable: ADOS scores were unavailable for one child, ADOS and ADOS-2 scores were not comparable, and mental age data were missing for two participants. A reliable Guttman scale does not prove that one underlying ability causes the sequence; it could reflect another unmeasured skill such as working memory or executive functioning. The study did not test an intervention, so it cannot show that targeting helping, pointing, gaze or cooperation changes communication or social outcomes.

The work was funded by Cerebra and the Leverhume Trust. The supplied text does not report author conflicts of interest.

Do not use the scale to diagnose autism or guide treatment. It was a research scaling study, the autism group had only 21 children, and the paper did not test whether targeting these skills changes communication or social outcomes.