LINGUISTIC AND SOCIAL RESPONSES TO SPEECH IN INFANTS AT RISK FOR AUTISM

UW ACE的整体提案以风险、风险的全面发展模型为中心 自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)的过程、症状出现和适应。根据这一点 模型中，早期自闭症危险因素(遗传/家庭和环境)导致危险过程，即改变 儿童与其环境之间的互动模式，这是导致异常的原因 神经回路和非典型行为的发展。项目III有两个广泛的目标：在对婴儿的研究中 自闭症儿童的兄弟姐妹，我们将(1)确定早期语言前测量的预测有效性 能力作为语言障碍和自闭症的风险指标，以及(2)检查早期干预的影响 高危婴儿言语知觉、言语偏好和言语习得的发展 对于ASD。我们对早期言语知觉的研究表明， 基本语言感知/产出的建议措施以及语言和语言的后期措施 典型发育期(TD)婴儿的词汇。此外，我们对学龄前儿童的研究发现 弱智儿童在语音辨别和社交能力测量上的严重差异 ASD和具有典型发育和发育迟缓的儿童。基于趋同的研究思路 对于TD儿童和患有自闭症的儿童，建议的言语产生和语言和 社会对言语的反应被认为对自闭症的风险程度极其敏感。 该项目直接解决了NIH自闭症研究矩阵中概述的目标：(1)确定 婴儿期生物学和/或行为风险指数对自闭症和自闭症相关疾病的影响 症状，如语言和社交障碍；(2)识别符合以下条件的个人特征 预测对行为治疗的反应；以及(3)提供自闭症病例可能是 通过早期识别和早期治疗进行第二次预防。它还将冲击关于 言语和语言发展，以及发展神经科学的一般理论。这些方法 以及为检查婴儿语言发育而提出的一系列问题，形成了 一套广泛且非常强大的工具，以促进我们在这些领域的知识。

The overall UW ACE proposal is centered on a comprehensive developmental model of risk, risk processes, symptom emergence, and adaptation in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). According to this model, early autism risk factors (genetic/familial and environmental) lead to risk processes, namely altered patterns of interaction between the child and his/her environment, which contribute to the abnormal development of neural circuitry and atypical behaviors. Project III has two broad goals: in a study of infant siblings of children with autism, we will (1) determine the predictive validity of measures of early prelinguistic abilities as risk indices for language impairment and ASD, and (2) examine the influence of early intervention on the development of speech perception, speech preferences, and acquisition of speech in infants at risk for ASD. Our studies of early speech perception have demonstrated predictive relationships between the proposed measures of basic language perception/production and later measures of language and vocabulary in typically developing (TD) infants. In addition, our studies of preschool age children found critical differences in measures of phonetic discrimination and social communication between children with ASD and children with typical development and developmental delay. Based on converging lines of research with TD children and children with ASD, the proposed measures of speech production and linguistic and social responsiveness to speech are hypothesized to be extremely sensitive to the degree of risk for autism. This project directly addresses goals outlined in the NIH Autism Research Matrix: (1) Identification of the biological and/or behavioral risk indices in infancy for the development of autism and autism-related symptoms, such as language and social impairments; (2) identification of individual characteristics that predict response to behavioral treatment; and (3) provision of evidence that cases of autism might be secondarily prevented through early identification and early treatment. It will also impact theories of speech and language development, and general theories of developmental neuroscience. The methods available to this laboratory, and the set of questions posed to examine infant speech development, form a broad and very powerful set of tools to advance our knowledge in these fields.