LONGITUDINAL STUDIES IN AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER

“自闭症谱系障碍纵向研究”项目包括： 两个连续转诊队列的纵向评价 自闭症的奥尔兹（110和83名儿童），一个40岁的合作队列 患有分裂症的儿童，以及发育性的 北卡罗来纳州的21名儿童的延迟非自闭症对照组， 芝加哥。重点是语言习得的分歧， 从幼儿园到中学年龄的相关性和轨迹。 描述并解释了在获得 自闭症谱系障碍中的表达性和接受性语言， 重要的是因为语言的严重性 延迟/非语言沟通可能是一个独立但相关的因素， 自闭症的主要社会认知缺陷。分类研究， 特别是关于语言障碍的研究表明 延迟通常与自闭症谱系障碍有关，但它不是 这必然是一个决定性因素。家人和其他人的最新证据 纵向研究表明，语言延迟可能在一定程度上 与自闭症特有的社会和行为不同的生物学关联 赤字此外，由于学龄儿童的语言表达能力 是自闭症最好的预测指标， 了解那些获得和没有获得 流利的语言对临床服务有直接的影响。 北卡罗来纳州队列在2岁、3岁和4-5岁时进行了评估。的 建议在9岁时跟随他们。根据4岁时的临床诊断- 5对于128个原来的131个孩子，有67个孩子患有自闭症， 30名患有广泛性发育障碍的儿童，未另行说明 和31名非谱系发育迟缓的儿童。年龄观察 9将允许进一步区分语言结果，特别是使用 表达性语言，开始学业成绩的测量， 有机会尝试描述行为问题和“共同”， 攻击性和注意力缺陷的”发病率“， 更好地理解独立的适应功能， 社会功能在芝加哥，83名儿童在2岁时被转诊为自闭症， 和3将在5岁和8-9岁时进行评估。该队列将提供 有机会复制早期和晚期之间的关系 在北卡罗来纳州受试者中观察到的诊断，增加样本 为了研究不同的结果，增加对患有PD-NOS的儿童的关注， 允许对选定数量的服务效果进行初步分析 孩子们。对于崩解剂，将遵循类似的方案。 失序儿童重点不是子集，而是更广泛的 考虑表型内的变异性。一定有某种机制 产生的异质性，显然发生在与 自闭症谱系障碍这个项目的目的是描述 自闭症谱系障碍发展的重要性维度 这可能与神经生物学数据有关，特别是分子和 家庭遗传学，并更好地了解这种异质性。

The project "Longitudinal studies in autism spectrum disorder" consists of longitudinal evaluation of two cohorts of consecutive referrals of two year olds for autism (110 and 83 children), a collaborative cohort of 40 children with disintegrative disorder, as well as a developmentally delayed non-autism comparison group of 21 children in North Carolina and Chicago. The focus is on the divergence of language acquisition, its correlates and trajectories from early preschool to mid school age. Describing and accounting for the wide divergence in the acquisition of expressive and receptive language in autism spectrum disorders is important because of the possibility that severity of language delay/nonverbal communication may be a separate though related factor from the primary social cognitive deficits in autism. Classification studies, particularly concerning Asperger's disorder suggest that while language delay is typically associated with autistic spectrum disorder, it is not necessarily a defining factor. Recent evidence from family and other longitudinal studies indicate that language delay may have somewhat different biological associations than autism-specific social and behavior deficits. In addition, because expressive language skills by school age are the best predictor of outcome within the disorder of autism, understanding the trajectories of children who do and do not acquire fluent speech has direct implication for clinical services. The North Carolina cohort has been evaluated at ages 2, 3 and 4-5. The proposal is to follow them at age 9. Based on clinical diagnoses at age 4- 5 for 128 of the original 131 children, there are 67 children with autism, 30 children with pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified and 31 children with non-spectrum developmental delays. Observation at age 9 will allow further differentiation of language outcome, particularly use of expressive language, measurement of beginning academic achievement, the opportunity to attempt to characterize behavior problems and "co- morbidity" of aggression and attention deficit, measurement of burden on family end better understanding of independent adaptive functioning and social functioning. In Chicago, 83 children referred for autism at ages 2 and 3 will be evaluated at ages 5 and 8-9. The cohort will provide the opportunity to replicate the relationship between early and later diagnosis seen in the North Carolina subjects, increase the sample in order to study divergent outcome, add a focus on children with PD-NOS and allow prelimInary analyses of the effect of services for a selected number of children. A similar protocol will be followed for the disintegrative disorder children. The emphasis is not on subset but rather broader consideration of variability within the phenotype. Some mechanism must be generating the heterogeneity that clearly occurs in association with autism spectrum disorders. The purpose of this project is to characterize dimensions of significance in development within autism spectrum disorder that can be related to neurobiological data, in particular molecular and family genetics, and to better understand this heterogeneity.