Early Social Orienting in Siblings of Children With ASD

描述(由申请人提供)：尽管自闭症儿童的兄弟姐妹被发现有更高的社交和沟通障碍风险，但研究尚未集中在这些儿童的早期发展上。研究自闭症儿童的年幼兄弟姐妹的主要优势是它为识别和补救可能对后续发展产生不利影响的早期缺陷提供了机会。社交行为缺陷是自闭症儿童最突出的早期症状，最近被假设为存在一种根本性的、自闭症特有的“社交定向”障碍。该项目将研究社会定向的四个维度(即启动情感、启动注意、回应情感、回应注意)的早期发展。在典型的发育中的婴儿中，这些行为类别出现得相当早，并为重要发展成就的出现奠定了基础，如建立社会-情感互惠和使用参照语言。社会定向行为将在两个兄弟姐妹组中进行纵向检查：患有自闭症谱系障碍儿童的较小兄弟姐妹(SIB-ASD)和典型发育儿童(SIB-TD)的较小兄弟姐妹(SIB-TD)是CA匹配的。两组的儿童都将在12到18个月大的时候进入研究，并将被跟踪两年(即36到42个月)。社交导向行为将在两年内的六个时间点进行测量，社交和语言结果将在结束时进行测量。此外，还将招募两个年龄匹配的比较样本，为社交定向行为提供终点参考：患有自闭症的儿童和患有非自闭症发育迟缓的儿童。纳入这些样本将使我们能够比较患有自闭症儿童的兄弟姐妹在3岁时的社会定向与：a)具有典型发育的儿童；b)患有自闭症的儿童；以及c)患有DD的儿童。该项目是对自闭症文学的独特贡献，其重点是患有自闭症儿童的非常年幼的兄弟姐妹；它对社会定向的不同组成部分进行了系统检查；其纵向设计；以及它使用3岁时自闭症和残疾儿童的横断面样本，以提供社交定向技能延迟和偏离的基准。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although siblings of children with autism have been found to be at elevated risk for social and communication impairments, research has not yet focused on the very early development of these children. The primary advantage of studying young siblings of children with autism is the opportunity it affords for the identification and remediation of early deficits that could have adverse effects on subsequent development. Deficits in social-communicative behaviors are the most prominent early symptoms in children with autism, and have recently been hypothesized to indicate the presence of a fundamental, autism-specific "social orienting" impairment. The proposed project will study the early development of four dimensions of social orienting (i.e., initiating affect, initiating attention, responding to affect, responding to attention). In typically developing infants, these classes of behavior appear quite early and set the stage for the emergence of important developmental accomplishments such as establishing social-emotional reciprocity and using referential language. Social orienting behaviors will be examined longitudinally in two sibling groups: younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders (SIB-ASD) and younger siblings of typically-developing children (SIB-TD) who are CA-matched. Children in both groups will enter the study between 12 and 18 months of age and will be followed for two years (i.e., through ages 36-42 months). Social orienting behaviors will be measured at six time points over the 2-year period, and social and language outcomes will be measured at the end point. Additionally, two age-matched comparison samples will be recruited to provide end-point references for social orienting behavior: children with ASD and children with nonautistic developmental delays (DD). The inclusion of these samples will enable us to compare social orienting at age 3 in siblings of children with ASD with that of: a) children with typical development; b) children with ASD; and c) children with DD. This project represents a unique contribution to the autism literature in its focus on very young siblings of children with autism; its systematic examination of different components of social orienting; its longitudinal design; and its use of ASD and DD cross-sectional samples at age 3 to provide benchmarks for delay and deviance in social orienting skills.