Scaffolded reaching experiences encourage grasping activity in infants at high risk for autism.

Klaus Libertus,Rebecca J Landa

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01071

Abstract

Recent findings suggest impaired motor skill development during infancy in children later diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, it remains unclear whether infants at high familial risk for ASD would benefit from early interventions targeting the motor domain. The current study investigated this issue by providing 3-month-old infants at high familial risk for ASD with training experiences aimed at facilitating independent reaching. A group of 17 high-risk (HR) infants received 2 weeks of scaffolded reaching experiences using “sticky mittens,” and was compared to 72 low-risk (LR) infants experiencing the same or alternative training procedures. Results indicate that HR infants – just like LR infants – show an increase in grasping activity following “sticky mittens” training. In contrast to LR infants, evidence that motor training encouraged a preference for faces in HR infants was inconclusive.

Highlights

Infants gather information about their environment and the objects within it through active exploration
Planned comparisons revealed significantly longer grasping durations following training in the HR infants receiving AT (HR-AT) group (M = 31.37, SD = 26.21) than in the LR-PT group [M = 11.80, SD = 14.70; p = 0.018, 95% CI (−31.04, −3.06)], the LR infants in the EE (LR-EE) group [M = 16.07, SD = 17.74; p = 0.035, 95% CI (−28.86, −1.11)], or the LR-ME group [M = 13.10, SD = 18.53; p = 0.018, 95% CI (−31.04, −3.06)]
The current study investigated the response of infants at high familial risk (HR) for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) to parent-implemented motor training

Summary

Introduction

Infants gather information about their environment and the objects within it through active exploration. The motor skills necessary to engage in manual exploration emerge during the first months of life as infants begin to reach for and grasp objects (e.g., White et al, 1964; Thelen et al, 1996) These basic exploration behaviors have far-reaching consequences for infants’ future development and research shows that early motor skills affects subsequent cognitive and social development. Motor skills at 18 months of age reportedly predict communication skills at 3 years of age (Wang et al, 2014), and the onset of independent walking has been found to increase both active social engagement by the child (Clearfield et al, 2008) and how mothers respond to social bids of the child (Karasik et al, 2014) Together, these examples highlight the importance of early motor skills for subsequent development and suggest that atypical motor skills may negatively impact development

Results

Discussion

Conclusion