The intentional and spontaneous social motor synchrony of pre-school autistic children: Evidence from fNIRS hyperscanning and machine learning.

Autistic children are less likely to participate in sport than non-autistic children, but we know little about how patterns of participation in team and individual sport change across childhood. Drawing on a nationally representative cohort of Australian children, this study analysed trajectories of participation in team and individual sport between the ages of 8 and 15 using a group-based multiple trajectory modelling approach. A five-group solution was found to be the best fit to the data, identifying distinct patterns of sport participation over time. In comparison with non-autistic children, autistic children were more likely to belong to the 'sport avoider' group with low participation in both team and individual sport at all ages. Conversely, autistic children were less likely to be classified in the 'team sportsperson', 'ex-team sportsperson' or 'mixed sportsperson' groups. No difference in the likelihood of belonging to the 'individual sportsperson' group was found. Risk factors for trajectory group membership were similar for autistic and non-autistic children. Our findings indicate that autistic children are particularly likely to experience exclusion from team sport environments, and this exclusion persists over time. Similar rates of participation in individual sport for autistic and non-autistic children indicate that these environments may be more supportive for autistic children.Lay abstractAutistic children are less likely to participate in sport than non-autistic children, but we know little about how patterns of participation in team and individual sport change across childhood. Drawing on data for a group of Australian children whose families were reinterviewed between ages 8 and 15, the present study patterns of participation in team and individual sport over time. Findings from the analysis suggested that children could be grouped into five patterns of participation in team and individual sport between the ages of 8 and 15. In comparison with non-autistic children, autistic children were more likely to belong to the 'sport avoider' group with low participation in both team and individual sport at all ages. Conversely, autistic children were less likely to belong to the 'team sportsperson', 'ex-team sportsperson' or 'mixed sportsperson' groups. Similar numbers of autistic and non-autistic children belonged to the 'individual sportsperson' group. Factors linked to patterns of participation over time were similar for autistic and non-autistic children. Our findings indicate that autistic children are particularly likely to experience exclusion from team sport environments, and this exclusion persists over time. Similar rates of participation in individual sport for autistic and non-autistic children indicate that these environments may be more supportive for autistic children.

Maximal grip strength, a measure of how much force a person's hand can generate when squeezing an object, may be an effective method for understanding potential neurobiological differences during motor tasks. Grip strength in autistic individuals may be of particular interest due to its unique developmental trajectory. While autism-specific differences in grip-brain relationships have been found in adult populations, it is possible that such differences in grip-brain relationships may be present at earlier ages when grip strength is behaviorally similar in autistic and non-autistic groups. Further, such neural differences may lead to the later emergence of diagnostic-group grip differences in adolescence. The present study sought to examine this possibility, while also examining if grip strength could elucidate the neuro-motor sources of phenotypic heterogeneity commonly observed within autism. Using high resolution, multi-shell diffusion, and quantitative R1 relaxometry imaging, this study examined how variations in key sensorimotor-related white matter pathways of the proprioception input, lateral grasping, cortico-cerebellar, and corticospinal networks were associated with individual variations in grip strength in 68 autistic children and 70 non-autistic (neurotypical) children (6-11 years-old). In both groups, results indicated that stronger grip strength was associated with higher proprioceptive input, lateral grasping, and corticospinal (but not cortico-cerebellar modification) fractional anisotropy and R1, indirect measures concordant with stronger microstructural coherence and increased myelination. Diagnostic group differences in these grip-brain relationships were not observed, but the autistic group exhibited more variability particularly in the cortico-cerebellar modification indices. An examination into the variability within the autistic group revealed that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) features moderated the relationships between grip strength and both fractional anisotropy and R1 relaxometry in the premotor-primary motor tract of the lateral grasping network and the cortico-cerebellar network tracts. Specifically, in autistic children with elevated ADHD features (60% of the autistic group) stronger grip strength was related to higher fractional anisotropy and R1 of the cerebellar modification network (stronger microstructural coherence and more myelin), whereas the opposite relationship was observed in autistic children with reduced ADHD features. Together, this work suggests that while the foundational elements of grip strength are similar across school-aged autistic and non-autistic children, neural mechanisms of grip strength within autistic children may additionally depend on the presence of ADHD features. Specifically, stronger, more coherent connections of the cerebellar modification network, which is thought to play a role in refining and optimizing motor commands, may lead to stronger grip in children with more ADHD features, weaker grip in children with fewer ADHD features, and no difference in grip in non-autistic children. While future research is needed to understand if these findings extend to other motor tasks beyond grip strength, these results have implications for understanding the biological basis of neuromotor control in autistic children and emphasize the importance of assessing co-occurring conditions when evaluating brain-behavior relationships in autism.

Difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep is common among autistic individuals and co-occurs with internalizing and externalizing symptoms. This study tested associations between subcortical regions implicated in sleep processes and measures of dysregulated sleep initiation/maintenance in autistic and non-autistic 2- to 4-year-olds. The role of co-occurring externalizing and internalizing symptoms in these associations was also evaluated. Participants included 203 autistic (131 males, 72 females) and 92 non-autistic (49 males, 43 females) 2- to 4-year-olds who completed magnetic resonance imaging. A subscale of items from the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire, previously shown to be reliable across both autistic and non-autistic children, was used to measure dysregulated sleep initiation/maintenance. Externalizing and internalizing symptoms were evaluated using the Child Behavior Checklist–Preschool. Associations between volumes for nine subcortical structures known to be implicated in sleep were separately modeled. Mediation analyses explored whether such associations could be accounted for by externalizing or internalizing symptoms. Smaller right hypothalamus volume was associated with dysregulated sleep initiation/maintenance in both autistic and non-autistic children. Externalizing (but not internalizing) problems partially mediated this association. Findings implicate the right hypothalamus in sleep initiation and maintenance issues for both autistic and non-autistic young children, supporting prior evidence of its central role in sleep regulation.Lay Difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep is common among autistic individuals and often goes alongside difficulties regulating emotions and behavior during the day. Although there is a body of research suggesting that subcortical brain regions, including a brain region known as the hypothalamus, play important roles regulating sleep, few studies have examined whether this extends to young autistic children. Using data from a sample of 203 autistic (131 males, 72 females) and 92 non-autistic (49 males, 43 females) 2- to 4-year-olds, we examined whether size of subcortical brain regions implicated in sleep processes is associated with difficulties initiating and/or maintaining sleep. In addition, we examined whether daytime behaviors and emotions were also implicated in these associations. We found that smaller right hypothalamus volume was associated with dysregulated sleep initiation/maintenance in both autistic and non-autistic children. This relationship remained evident even after accounting for externalizing behaviors and emotions like anger that were also associated with both the hypothalamus and dysregulated sleep initiation/maintenance. The strength of association between right hypothalamus volumes and dysregulated sleep initiation/maintenance was similar for autistic and non-autistic children. These findings suggest that for both young autistic and non-autistic children, the hypothalamus plays unique roles in regulating both sleep and externalizing behaviors. For managing sleep initiation and maintenance difficulties in clinical practice, the findings underscore the importance of considering environmental (e.g. not having a regular bedtime routine) and neurobiological factors, for both autistic and non-autistic young children.

Autistic individuals often face challenges perceiving and expressing emotions, potentially stemming from differences in speech prosody. Here we explore how autism diagnoses between groups, and measures of social competence within groups may be related to, first, children's speech characteristics (both prosodic features and amount of spontaneous speech), and second, to these two factors in mothers' speech to their children. Autistic (n = 21) and non-autistic (n = 18) children, aged 7-12 years, participated in a Lego-building task with their mothers, while conversational speech was recorded. Mean F0, pitch range, pitch variability, and amount of spontaneous speech were calculated for each child and their mother. The results indicated no differences in speech characteristics across autistic and non-autistic children, or across their mothers, suggesting that conversational context may have large effects on whether differences between autistic and non-autistic populations are found. However, variability in social competence within the group of non-autistic children (but not within autistic children) was predictive of children's mean F0, pitch range and pitch variability. The amount of spontaneous speech produced by mothers (but not their prosody) predicted their autistic children's social competence, which may suggest a heightened impact of scaffolding for mothers of autistic children. Together, results suggest complex interactions between context, social competence, and adaptive parenting strategies in driving prosodic differences in children's speech.

Motor and sensory challenges are commonly reported among autistic individuals and have been linked to challenges with daily living skills (DLS). To best inform clinical intervention, greater specificity in how sensory and motor challenges relate to DLS is needed. To evaluate the relationship between combined sensory and motor scores and DLS performance among autistic and nonautistic children and to explore associations between motor scores and performance on specific DLS items. Descriptive design. University research lab. Autistic children, nonautistic children with no family history of or diagnosis related to autism, and nonautistic children with a family history of or diagnosis related to autism (ages 6-10 yr; N = 101). All participants communicated verbally. None. Outcomes and Measures: Parent-report measures of DLS and sensory features and standardized assessments of motor performance. Findings indicated a strong relationship between motor difficulties and all domains of DLS. At the item level, motor skills were associated with occupations of dressing, bathing, health management, cleaning up and organization, meal preparation and clean-up, education, and safety. Combined sensory and motor measures better predicted DLS than sensory or motor measures alone. Children with motor and sensory challenges are likely to experience challenges with a diversity of occupations, which is important given the prevalence of motor and sensory challenges among autistic children and among children with other neurodevelopmental conditions. Therapeutic interventions that account for or address these motor challenges and associated sensory features are likely to further enhance DLS. What This Article Adds: A combination of motor challenges and sensory features better predict DLS than either motor or sensory challenges alone. In addition, motor challenges in children are most highly associated with DLS challenges in the domains of dressing, bathing, cleaning, education, safety, health, and meal preparation. Occupational therapists can use this information when considering how the results of sensory and motor assessment may guide clinical intervention in autistic and nonautistic children.

Evaluation of DNA repair efficiency in autistic children by molecular cytogenetic analysis and transcriptome profiling

The nature of mother-child interaction in autism and the maternal approach characteristics that elicit social response in children with autism were examined in two studies. Mother-child play sessions of 24 preschool children with autism and 24 typically developing preschoolers were compared in Study 1, and play sessions of 9 mothers with their autistic child and with their nonautistic child were compared in Study 2. Mother-child interactions were coded using the Approach Withdrawal Interaction Coding System to quantify maternal approach behaviors and child responses. Results of Study 1 indicate that, although the quantity of approaches did not differ between mothers with their autistic children and mothers with their nonautistic children, there were qualitative differences. Mothers used more physical contact, more high-intensity behaviors, and fewer social verbal approaches with autistic children. Results of Study 2 replicated these findings with mothers showing a similar pattern of approach toward their autistic children but not their nonautistic children. Although autistic children displayed lower contingency to maternal approaches in general, they showed greater responsiveness to approaches involving increased physical proximity and/or containing nonverbal object use. Mothers socially engaged both autistic and nonautistic children. The implications for parent training and intervention are discussed.

Alexithymia is characterized by difficulties identifying and describing one's own emotions and the emotions of others. These challenges with understanding emotions in people with alexithymia may give rise to difficulties with social interactions. Given that alexithymia frequently co-occurs with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and that both populations have difficulties with social interactions, it is of interest to determine whether alexithymia can help to parse some of the heterogeneity in social competence in autistic and nonautistic individuals. The caregivers of 241 children (6-14 years old), including 120 autistic, and 121 nonautistic, rated their child's social competence using the Multidimensional Social Competence Scale (MSCS), autism traits using the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), and alexithymia traits using the Children's Alexithymia Measure (CAM). Regression analyses indicated that age, IQ, sex, AQ, and CAM scores accounted for 40.2% of the variance in autistic children's, and 68.2% of the variance in nonautistic children's, parent-reported social competence. Importantly, after controlling for age, IQ, sex, and AQ scores, CAM scores alone accounted for an additional 16.2% of the variance in autistic children's, and 17.4% of the variance in nonautistic children's social competence. These results indicate that higher alexithymia traits predict lower levels of social competence, suggesting that increased difficulty in identifying and describing one's own emotions and the emotions of others is associated with poorer social competence. Furthermore, CAM scores were found to partially mediate the relationship between autistic traits and social competence, suggesting that comorbid alexithymia traits may be partially responsible for poor social competence in individuals with high autistic traits. This research contributes to the understanding of the factors associated with the development of social competence and highlights alexithymia as a potential target for identification and intervention to improve social competence. LAY SUMMARY: Alexithymia is a condition where people find it hard to think and talk about their (and others') feelings. About 50% of autistic people have alexithymia. This might be why they have social and emotional difficulties. Parents answered questions about alexithymia and social difficulties their children have. Children with more alexithymia problems had poorer social skills. Thus, alexithymia may be related to social problems faced by autistic and nonautistic children.

To compare the national prevalence of meeting physical activity, screen time, and sleep guidelines between autistic and nonautistic children and identify factors associated with meeting these guidelines. Prevalences for each health-determining behavior were estimated using the 2022 National Survey of Children's Health, using national guidelines. Complex survey-weighted logistic regression, adjusted for demographic covariates, was used to measure associations between autism and meeting each guideline, and to identify potential child, family, community, and policy-level determinants of each behavior among autistic children. The prevalence of meeting all three guidelines was low among autistic and nonautistic children across age groups. Physical activity guidelines were met at similarly low rates among autistic and nonautistic children; however, autistic children of all age groups were less likely to meet screen time guidelines, and those in the 3-5 and 6-11years age groups were less likely to meet sleep guidelines. Moderate/severe autism, irregular bedtime, low parental education, and lacking a medical home were associated with lower likelihood of meeting sleep guidelines. Irregular bedtime and high income were associated with lower likelihood of meeting physical activity guidelines. Autistic children meet guidelines for physical activity, screen time, and sleep at a low prevalence and less than their nonautistic peers. Clinicians should develop individualized plans to facilitate adherence to guidelines among autistic children. Interventions should address modifiable factors, including bedtime regularity and access to medical homes. Further research and policy efforts should be made to improve adherence to guidelines among autistic children and subsequently reduce health disparities.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and interaction. Speech is an important form of social communication. Prosody (e.g. vocal pitch, rhythm, etc.), one aspect of the speech signal, is crucial for ensuring information about the emotionality, excitability, and intent of the speaker, is accurately expressed. The objective of this study was to gain a better understanding of how auditory information is used to regulate speech prosody in autistic and non-autistic children, while exploring the relationship between the prosodic control of speech and social competence. Eighty autistic (M = 8.48 years, SD = 2.55) and non-autistic (M = 7.36 years, SD = 2.51) participants produced vocalizations while exposed to unaltered and frequency altered auditory feedback. The parent-report Multidimensional Social Competence Scale was used to assess social competence, while the Autism-Spectrum Quotient and the Autism Spectrum Rating Scales were used to assess autism characteristics. Results indicate that vocal response magnitudes and vocal variability were similar across autistic and non-autistic children. However, autistic children produced significantly faster responses to the auditory feedback manipulation. Hierarchical multiple regressions indicated that these faster responses were significantly associated with poorer parent-rated social competence and higher autism characteristics. These findings suggest that prosodic speech production differences are present in at least a subgroup of autistic children. These results represent a key step in understanding how atypicalities in the mechanisms supporting speech production may manifest in social-communication deficits, as well as broader social competence, and vice versa. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1880-1892. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research and Wiley Periodicals LLC LAY SUMMARY: In this study, autistic and non-autistic children produced vowel sounds while listening to themselves through headphones. When the children heard their vocal pitch shifted upward or downward, they compensated by shifting their vocal pitch in the opposite direction. Interestingly, autistic children were faster to correct for the perceived vowel sound changes than their typically developing peers. Faster responses in the children with ASD were linked to poorer ratings of their social abilities by their parent. These results suggest that autistic and non-autistic children show differences in how quickly they control their speech, and these differences may be related to the social challenges experienced by autistic children.

Play, in particular sex-typical play, is important for affective, cognitive, and social development. There is limited research on sex-typical play in autistic children. The few prior studies on this topic relied heavily on reports or involvement of caregivers/parents, did not assess cognitive abilities, and examined a limited number of sex-typical play outcomes. The present study examined sex-typical play in 120 children without intellectual disability (30 autistic boys, 35 non-autistic boys, 20 autistic girls, 35 non-autistic girls) aged 4-11 years. Vocabulary and abstract reasoning were also assessed. Consistently across all five play measures (parent-reported composite play, self-reported activity preferences, self-reported toy preferences, self-reported playmate preferences, and observed toy play), there were medium or large, and mostly significant, differences between autistic and non-autistic boys, suggesting less male-typical/more female-typical play in autistic boys. Autistic and non-autistic boys did not differ in vocabulary, abstract reasoning, or age. No consistent, clear, or significant patterns emerged in comparisons of autistic and non-autistic girls. The more non-conforming play in autistic boys concurs with certain prior findings suggesting that the autistic community is not confined to social norms and shows increased gender diversity. The potential link between the unaltered play in autistic girls and camouflaging is considered.Lay abstractIn the non-autistic community, boys and girls tend to play differently, although these average differences do not apply to all the boys and girls. Little is known about similarities and differences in sex-typical play (e.g. playing with cars, playing with dolls, rough-and-tumble play, playing house) between autistic and non-autistic children. We looked at different aspects of sex-typical play such as toy, activity, and playmate preferences in autistic and non-autistic children without intellectual disability. Different methods including parent reports, self-reports, and play observation were used. We found some average differences between autistic and non-autistic boys. On average, compared with non-autistic boys, autistic boys played in a more non-conforming manner (less male-typical/more female-typical toy, activity, and playmate preferences). These findings are consistent with observations from other research studies suggesting that autistic individuals may defy social norms and express themselves in diverse ways. There were no differences between autistic and non-autistic girls. One possibility is that autistic girls may camouflage, or mask, their non-conforming play preferences, but further research is needed to test this possibility. The findings from this study can help families, professionals, and schools better understand how autistic boys and girls develop.

This study examined involuntary capture of attention, overt attention, and stimulus valence and arousal ratings, all factors that can contribute to potential attentional biases to face and train objects in children with and without autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the visual domain, faces are particularly captivating, and are thought to have a ‘special status’ in the attentional system. Research suggests that similar attentional biases may exist for other objects of expertise (e.g. birds for bird experts), providing support for the role of exposure in attention prioritization. Autistic individuals often have circumscribed interests around certain classes of objects, such as trains, that are related to vehicles and mechanical systems. This research aimed to determine whether this propensity in autistic individuals leads to stronger attention capture by trains, and perhaps weaker attention capture by faces, than what would be expected in non-autistic children. In Experiment 1, autistic children (6–14 years old) and age- and IQ-matched non-autistic children performed a visual search task where they manually indicated whether a target butterfly appeared amongst an array of face, train, and neutral distractors while their eye-movements were tracked. Autistic children were no less susceptible to attention capture by faces than non-autistic children. Overall, for both groups, trains captured attention more strongly than face stimuli and, trains had a larger effect on overt attention to the target stimuli, relative to face distractors. In Experiment 2, a new group of children (autistic and non-autistic) rated train stimuli as more interesting and exciting than the face stimuli, with no differences between groups. These results suggest that: (1) other objects (trains) can capture attention in a similar manner as faces, in both autistic and non-autistic children (2) attention capture is driven partly by voluntary attentional processes related to personal interest or affective responses to the stimuli.

Atypical face scanning is suggested to be related to social interactions and communicative deficits in autistic children. We systematically examined whether autistic and non-autistic children used consistent scanning patterns when performing different tasks and scanning different types of faces. We found that autistic children scanned faces more variably than non-autistic children: While non-autistic children used more consistent scanning patterns, autistic children's scanning patterns changed frequently when watching different faces. Autistic children's variable face scanning patterns might delay and impair face processing, resulting in a social interaction deficit. What's more, variable scanning patterns may create an unstable and unpredictable perception of the environment for autistic children. Developing in such an unstable environment might motivate autistic children to retract from the environment, avoid social interaction, and focus instead on the performance of repetitive behavior. Therefore, studying face scanning variability might represent a new avenue for understanding core symptoms in autistic people.

Background: Vocabulary composition and word-learning biases are closely interrelated in typical development. Such word-learning biases are influenced by perceptually and conceptually salient word features, including imageability, concreteness, iconicity, and attention to shape. Autistic children often have delayed language acquisition, but there is currently little research examining the underlying mechanisms autistic children use to acquire words. The current study aimed to examine the noun composition of autistic children across a range of vocabulary sizes by examining associations between expressive noun vocabulary size and imageability, iconicity, concreteness and evidence for the shape bias, and to examine whether these patterns differ from their non-autistic peers. Methods: Participants for the word features analyses included 246 autistic children who were reported to produce between 5-312 nouns, and 940 expressive-vocabulary non-autistic children. Participants in the shape bias analyses included 272 autistic children who were reported to produce between 1-312 nouns, and 1,021 expressive-vocabulary and non-autistic children. Expressive vocabulary knowledge was measured using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (Fenson et al., 2007). Results: Each analysis indicated that imageability, iconicity, and concreteness were associated with noun vocabulary size for both groups. Both groups displayed nonlinear change across vocabulary size, and group differences were found for each perceptual feature except imageability The pattern of the associations differed slightly for concreteness and iconicity for the autistic group, primarily at the very earliest points in noun vocabulary learning. Across the three word features, both autistic and non-autistic children learn highly imageable, iconic, and concrete words during the earliest stages of noun learning. Both groups also demonstrated evidence for the shape bias system, but the trajectory of growth of evidence for the system differed between the two groups. Conclusions: Imageability, iconicity, and concreteness were identified as significant lexicosemantic features for describing expressive noun vocabulary size in autistic children. Although slight differences across word features were observed, autistic children seem to have broadly similar noun vocabularies to their non-autistic peers. Furthermore, autistic children with smaller vocabularies produced more words that are highly imageable, iconic, and concrete, whereas children with larger vocabularies produced words that are less perceptually salient, indicating a potential shift away from reliance on perceptual-based language processing. We report unique information about nonlinear growth patterns associated with each word feature, with evidence for the shape system, and distinctions in these growth patterns between groups. Future studies should explore word-learning and lexical growth patterns involving early verb acquisition in autistic children.

Autistic children have been shown to have poorer bone health than their non-autistic peers, but previous evidence on this topic has been based on small clinical samples and is limited by how bone health has been measured. The association between autism and bone health may also reflect confounding by correlated genetic or environmental factors, but prior studies have not addressed this issue. We address these issues using data from a population-representative cohort of Australian children with bone health measured by peripheral quantitative computed tomography (pQCT) for both children and parents. Data for 1,274 children (66 autistic, 1,208 non-autistic) aged 11-12 years (50% male) were drawn from the Child Health CheckPoint within the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children. pQCT measures at the tibial diaphysis (ankle) and metaphysis (shin) were recorded using an identical protocol for children and one attending parent. Child autism was parent reported. Regression analyses were used to compare differences between autistic and non-autistic children, and between parents of autistic children and parents of non-autistic children. Our findings indicate poorer bone health as assessed by tibial pQCT among autistic children compared to non-autistic children at both the metaphysis and diaphysis. No differences in pQCT measures were found between parents of autistic and non-autistic children, suggesting no evidence of confounding by shared genetic or environmental factors. These findings reinforce the need to support improved bone development among autistic children and suggest that differences in bone health are likely driven by behavioural factors that are potentially amenable to intervention.