Early Social and Emotional Development in Toddlers at Genetic Risk for Autism

有自闭症遗传风险的幼儿的早期社交和情感发展

• 批准号: 8068905
• 负责人: SUSAN B CAMPBELL
• 金额: $ 36.93万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-05-03 至 2015-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8068905
• 关键词: Achievement; Address; Affect; Age; Age of Onset; Autistic Disorder; Behavior; Behavioral; Biological Markers; Brain; Caregivers; Child; Child Development; Cognitive; Complement; Complex; Data; Data Quality; Development; Developmental Delay Disorders; Diagnosis; Diagnostic; Differential Diagnosis; Disease; Early Diagnosis; Early identification; Early treatment; Emotional; Emotions; Empathy; Family; Functional disorder; Funding; General Population; Genes; Genetic; Genetic Programming; Genetic Risk; Goals; Impairment; Infant; Intervention; Laboratories; Language; Language Delays; Language Development; Learning; Life; Longitudinal Studies; Measures; Medical; Memory; Motor; Nature; Nervous System Physiology; Neurodevelopmental Disorder; Neurologic Process; Neurons; Nursery Schools; Other Genetics; Pattern; Plant Roots; Play; Prevention; Prospective Studies; Protocols documentation; Recording of previous events; Recurrence; Regulation; Relative (related person); Research; Research Personnel; Risk; Role; Self-control as a personality trait; Siblings; Social Development; Subgroup; Symptoms; System; Toddler; United States National Institutes of Health; Universities; Work; age related; autism spectrum disorder; base; developmental neurobiology; early childhood; early onset; emotion regulation; high risk; high risk infant; infancy; migration; postnatal; prenatal; prospective; public health relevance; sensorimotor system; sex; skills; social; social reciprocity

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Autism is a serious, heritable neurodevelopmental disorder that affects children's functioning in social, emotional, and cognitive domains. Early diagnosis and intervention may ameliorate problems in some children, but autism is difficult to diagnose before age 3. This is because early signs are often subtle; in typical children, development is often uneven; and milder disorders and specific language delays also may be confused with autism in early childhood. Prospective studies of younger siblings of children with an autism diagnosis hold promise, given their higher genetic risk to develop autism or a milder disorder on the autism spectrum (ASD), with recurrence rates as high as 20%. Younger siblings of children with autism (high risk) and age/sex-matched younger siblings of typically developing children (low risk) are currently being studied as part of the Pitt Early Autism Study. The aim of this proposal is to: 1) identify differences between high and low risk toddlers in social-emotional development, focusing on several fundamental aspects of typical development across 18-36 months, that are also known to be impaired in preschool age children with an autism diagnosis, and are especially likely to be disrupted in high risk toddlers who show atypical development; 2) delineate longitudinal trajectories of social-emotional development in high risk toddlers who receive a diagnosis of autism by 36 months and in those who show milder ASD symptoms or language delays, in comparison to high risk toddlers who develop without evident problems and to low risk toddlers; 3) examine profiles of social-emotional, cognitive, communicative, and attentional development in high risk children with and without a later diagnosis and in low risk children. Early social-emotional reciprocity with primary caregivers, the emergence of empathy, the development of pretend play and self-other representation, and the regulation of behavior and negative emotion, salient developmental tasks of toddlerhood, will be assessed. Cross- sectional and longitudinal analyses will delineate group differences and trajectories of typical and atypical development as a function of diagnosis at 36 months. Findings have implications for the early identification and treatment of children with autism and will contribute to differential diagnosis of autism, ASD, and language delay as distinct from typical, but uneven development. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Social reciprocity, empathy, and pretend play are major achievements of toddlerhood, but are impaired or absent in young children with autism. This prospective longitudinal study, which began in infancy, will examine early social and emotional development in high risk toddlers who have an older sibling with an autism diagnosis and compare them to toddlers with a typically developing older sibling at 22, 28, and 34 months. This work will contribute to early identification and early intervention for children with autism, and also help to differentiate early social markers of autism from those of other developmental delays and typical, but uneven, development.

描述(由申请人提供)：自闭症是一种严重的、可遗传的神经发育障碍，影响儿童在社会、情感和认知领域的功能。早期诊断和干预可能会改善一些儿童的问题，但自闭症在3岁之前很难诊断。这是因为早期迹象往往很微妙；在典型儿童中，发育往往不平衡；较轻微的障碍和特定的语言延迟也可能与儿童早期的自闭症混淆。对被诊断为自闭症儿童的年幼兄弟姐妹的前瞻性研究是有希望的，因为他们患自闭症或自闭症谱系(ASD)上较轻微疾病的遗传风险更高，复发率高达20%。作为皮特早期自闭症研究的一部分，目前正在对患有自闭症儿童(高风险)的较小兄弟姐妹以及发育正常儿童(低风险)的年龄/性别匹配的较小兄弟姐妹进行研究。这项建议的目的是：1)确定高风险和低风险幼儿在社交情绪发展方面的差异，重点关注18-36个月的典型发育的几个基本方面，这些方面也是已知的在患有自闭症的学龄前儿童中受损的，在表现出非典型发育的高风险幼儿中尤其可能受到干扰；2)描绘出36个月大时被诊断为自闭症的高风险幼儿和那些表现出较轻微的自闭症症状或语言障碍的高风险幼儿的社会情绪发展的纵向轨迹；3)检查高危儿童和低风险儿童的社交-情绪、认知、沟通和注意力发展的情况。将评估早期与主要照顾者的社会情感互惠、同理心的出现、假装游戏和自我他人表征的发展，以及行为和负面情绪的调节，这些都是幼儿时期的显著发展任务。横断面和纵向分析将描绘出典型和非典型发育在36个月时作为诊断函数的组差异和轨迹。研究结果对自闭症儿童的早期识别和治疗具有重要意义，并将有助于对自闭症、自闭症和语言延迟的鉴别诊断，以区别于典型但不平衡的发育。 公共卫生相关性：社会互惠、同理心和假装游戏是学步儿童的主要成就，但在患有自闭症的幼儿中则受到损害或缺失。这项前瞻性的纵向研究始于婴儿期，将检查有自闭症诊断的哥哥姐姐的高危幼儿的早期社交和情绪发展，并将他们与22、28和34个月时有典型发育的哥哥姐姐的幼儿进行比较。这项工作将有助于自闭症儿童的早期识别和早期干预，并有助于将自闭症的早期社会标记物与其他发育迟缓和典型但不平衡的发育标记物区分开来。