Spontaneous Initiation of Communication in Infants at Low and Heightened Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders

Winder, Breanna M.
Wozniak, Robert H.
Parladé, Meaghan V.
Iverson, Jana M.

¹Department of Psychology, Bryn Mawr College
²Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh

Breanna M. Winder, Department of Psychology, Bryn Mawr College, 101. North Merion Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010 [email protected]

Submission April 8, 2012. Revision October 3, 2012. Accepted October 9, 2012.

Developmental Psychology 49(10):p 1931-1942, October 2013. | DOI: 10.1037/a0031061

Communication spontaneously initiated by infants at heightened risk (HR; n = 15) for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is compared with that in low-risk (LR; n = 15) infants at 13 and 18 months of age. Infants were observed longitudinally during naturalistic in-home interaction and semistructured play with caregivers. At both ages, HR infants spontaneously produced Words, Communicative Non-Word Vocalizations, show and point Gestures, and Gesture + Non-Word Vocalization combinations at lower rates than LR peers. This difference also held for Gesture + Word combinations at 18 but not 13 months. At 36 months, all HR children were evaluated for ASD, and 3 received a diagnosis of autistic disorder. At both 13 and 18 months, these 3 children had been at or near the bottom of the distribution on all spontaneous communication variables.