Early Social Orienting in Siblings of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

描述（由申请人提供）：虽然自闭症儿童的兄弟姐妹被发现有社交和沟通障碍的风险较高，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点是它提供了识别和补救可能对随后的发展产生不利影响的早期缺陷的机会。社交行为缺陷是自闭症儿童最突出的早期症状，最近被假设为表明存在基本的、自闭症特有的“社交定向”障碍。拟议的项目将研究社会定向的四个方面的早期发展（即，发起影响，发起注意，对影响做出反应，对注意做出反应）。在发育正常的婴儿中，这些行为很早就出现了，并为重要的发展成就的出现奠定了基础，例如建立社会情感互惠和使用指称语言。社会定向行为将在两个兄弟姐妹群体中进行纵向研究：自闭症谱系障碍儿童（SIB-ASD）的弟弟妹妹和CA匹配的典型发育儿童（SIB-TD）的弟弟妹妹。两组中的儿童将在12至18个月大之间进入研究，并将随访两年（即，36-42个月）。将在2年期间的六个时间点测量社交定向行为，并在终点测量社交和语言结果。此外，将招募两个年龄匹配的比较样本，为社会定向行为提供终点参考：ASD儿童和非自闭症发育迟缓（DD）儿童。纳入这些样本将使我们能够比较自闭症儿童的兄弟姐妹在3岁时的社会定向：a）具有典型发展的儿童; B）自闭症儿童;和c）DD儿童。这个项目是一个独特的贡献，自闭症文学在其重点非常年轻的兄弟姐妹自闭症儿童;其系统的检查不同组成部分的社会定向;其纵向设计;和其使用ASD和DD横截面样本在3岁时提供基准延迟和偏差的社会定向技能。

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.