Early Social Communication Research Articles

Regulation During the Second Year: Executive Function and Emotion Regulation Links to Joint Attention, Temperament, and Social Vulnerability in a Latin American Sample

Although a growing body of work has established developing regulatory abilities during the second year of life, more work is needed to better understand factors that influence this emerging control. The purpose of the present study was to examine regulation capacities in executive functions (i.e., EF or cognitive control) and emotion regulation (i.e., ER or control focused on modulating negative and sustaining positive emotions) in a Latin American sample, with a focus on how joint attention, social vulnerability, and temperament contribute to performance. Sixty Latin American dyads of mothers and children aged 18 to 24 months completed several EF tasks, a Still-Face Paradigm (SFP) to examine ER (Weinberg et al., 2008), and the Early Social Communication Scale to measure joint attention (Mundy et al., 2003). Parents completed the Early Childhood Behavior Questionnaire Very Short Form to measure temperament (ECBQ-VS, Putnam et al., 2010) and the Social Economic Level Scale (SES) from INDEC (2000). Results revealed the typical responses expected for toddlers of this age in these EF tasks and in the SFP. Also, we found associations between EF and ER and between non-verbal communication related to monitoring infants’ attention to objects (i.e., responding to joint attention) and initiation of pointing (e.g., pointing and showing of an object while the child alternates his gaze to an adult) with EF. Regarding social factors, family differences and type of housing contribute to regulation. For temperament, effortful control was associated with both regulatory capacities. Finally, only age predicted EF. These results suggest that many patterns regarding the development of these abilities are duplicated in the first months of life in a Latin American sample while further highlighting the importance of considering how the environment and the individual characteristics of infants may associate to these regulatory abilities, which is particularly relevant to developing public policies to promote their optimal development.

Early Social Communication Profile of Korean Late Toddlers via the CSBS DP

배경 및 목적: 이 연구는 말늦은 영유아의 사회적 의사소통 프로파일을 각각 생활연령과 언어연령을 일치시킨 일반 영유아 집단과 비교하여 살펴보는 것을 목적으로 하였다. 방법: 연구 대상은 18-36개월 사이의 말늦은 영유아 18명과 생활연령을 일치시킨 일반 영유아(생활연령일치 집단) 18명, 언어연령을 일치시킨 일반 영유아(언어연령일치 집단) 18명, 총...

Impaired vocal communication, sleep‐related discharges, and transient alteration of slow‐wave sleep in developing mice lacking the GluN2A subunit of N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate receptors

Glutamate-gated N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) are instrumental to brain development and functioning. Defects in the GRIN2A gene, encoding the GluN2A subunit of NMDARs, cause slow-wave sleep (SWS)-related disorders of the epilepsy-aphasia spectrum (EAS). The as-yet poorly understood developmental sequence of early EAS-related phenotypes, and the role of GluN2A-containing NMDARs in the development of SWS and associated electroencephalographic (EEG) activity patterns, were investigated in Grin2a knockout (KO) mice. Early social communication was investigated by ultrasonic vocalization (USV) recordings; the relationship of electrical activity of the cerebral cortex with SWS was studied using deep local field potential or chronic EEG recordings at various postnatal stages. Grin2a KO pups displayed altered USV and increased occurrence of high-voltage spindles. The pattern of slow-wave activity induced by low-dose isoflurane was altered in Grin2a KO mice in the 3rd postnatal week and at 1month of age. These alterations included strong suppression of the delta oscillation power and an increase in the occurrence of the spike-wave bursts. The proportion of SWS and the sleep quality were transiently reduced in Grin2a KO mice aged 1month but recovered by the age of 2months. Grin2a KO mice also displayed spontaneous spike-wave discharges, which occurred nearly exclusively during SWS, at 1 and 2months of age. The impaired vocal communication, the spike-wave discharges occurring almost exclusively in SWS, and the age-dependent alteration of SWS that were all seen in Grin2a KO mice matched the sleep-related and age-dependent manifestations seen in children with EAS, hence validating the Grin2a KO as a reliable model of EAS disorders. Our data also show that GluN2A-containing NMDARs are involved in slow-wave activity, and that the period of postnatal brain development (postnatal day 30) when several anomalies peaked might be critical for GluN2A-dependent, sleep-related physiological and pathological processes.

Early childhood social communication deficits in youth at clinical high-risk for psychosis: Associations with functioning and risk.

Effective social functioning requires a broad range of social communication skills that are impaired in psychosis populations. However, little is known about early childhood (4- to 5-year period) social communication during the premorbid (pre-illness) stage of psychosis. The present study utilized retrospective parent reports to examine total early childhood social communication deficits, as well as deficits in two distinct domains, reciprocal social interaction (social smiling/eye gaze) and communication (social chat/gesture), in youth at clinical high-risk (CHR) for psychosis (ages 13-21; 37.2% female). Furthermore, associations between early childhood social communication and CHR youth's current functioning (social, academic/work), symptoms (positive/negative), and risk for conversion to psychosis were examined. Compared to healthy controls, CHR individuals had greater deficits in total and communication-specific early childhood social communication. Early childhood total, communication, and reciprocal social interaction deficits were associated with worse current functioning and greater current negative symptom severity (amotivation/anhedonia) in CHR youth. Early childhood total and reciprocal social interaction deficits were also associated with increased risk for conversion. These findings inform the field's understanding of the etiology and pathophysiology of psychosis by extending the current developmental literature on premorbid deficits in psychosis populations to specific domains of social behavior in a critical developmental period.

244. Early Childhood Social Communication Motor Deficits in Youth at Clinical High-Risk for Psychosis: Associations With Functioning and Risk

Socio-communicative motor behaviors (e.g., gesture, imitation, pantomime) are an outward manifestation of the dynamic integration of several fundamental processes (e.g., motor function, social perception) that are essential for social development. Although childhood premorbid motor abnormalities are common in children that ultimately develop psychosis in adulthood, little is known about the early childhood socio-communicative motor behaviors in individuals at risk for psychotic disorders.

Validating and Applying the CSBS-ITC in Neurogenetic Syndromes.

Although social communication skills are commonly delayed in children with neurogenetic syndromes (NGS), skill profiles in very young children are largely under characterized, in part due to the lack of validated assessment measures appropriate for these populations. We addressed this gap by validating and applying a popular early social communication screening measure, the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile - Infant-Toddler Checklist (CSBS-ITC) in three previously understudied neurogenetic groups: Angelman, Prader-Willi, and Williams syndromes. Our results suggest that when used within the appropriate scope of screening and surveillance, the CSBS-ITC detects meaningful variability in skills across ages in young children with NGS and may provide useful information about both individual- and population-level social communication profiles in these populations.

The relation between parent verbal responsiveness and child communication in young children with or at risk for autism spectrum disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Among preschool-age children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing children, parents' verbal responsiveness (PVR) has long been shown to predict children's later language ability. However, before the age of three, when language develops most rapidly, the early social communication deficits associated with ASD may impact parents' opportunities to facilitate early language development. The aim of this review was to characterize the relation between PVR and the vocal communication ability of children with or at high risk for ASD early in development. Specifically, we examined whether the relation between PVR and child communication varied by type of PVR and by child diagnostic status, as well as whether interventions increased PVR. A systematic multi-database search yielded 25 empirical studies (804 parent-toddler dyads; 30 effect sizes) that met inclusion criteria and related a variable of PVR to a variable of child vocalization or language. Meta-regression analyses revealed that the relation between PVR and child communication was significant regardless of PVR type or child diagnostic status. To date, interventions targeting both PVR and child communication were found to significantly increase PVR, but not child communication, for these populations. Future research should examine parent-child communication in a transactional, longitudinal manner. In addition, these findings have implications for interventions designed to target parents' responsiveness and child communication. Autism Research 2019, 12: 715-731. © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: For families with children under 3 years old who are at risk for or diagnosed with ASD, this study revealed empirical evidence of a robust relation between parents'' verbal responsiveness to their children's play and communication and children's communication ability. This relation is similar to that reported in research on typically developing children. Interventions designed to improve parent-child interaction in children with or at risk for ASD may be effective in increasing parents' responsiveness.

Brief Report: Feasibility and Preliminary Efficacy of a Behavioral Intervention for Minimally Verbal Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

We report the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a structured behavioral intervention with a sample of minimally verbal girls with autism spectrum disorder between the ages of 2 and 6 years old. Ten participants with no functional vocal behavior were randomized to a 4-week behavioral intervention or waitlist control group. Caregivers reported child communicative repertoires at pre- and post-randomization assessments. Social communication was also assessed at these time points using the Early Social Communication Scales. All feasibility benchmarks were met and findings of preliminary efficacy showed large effect sizes within groups. The current findings suggest the feasibility of recruiting and retaining samples of young, minimally verbal girls with autism spectrum disorder in randomized clinical trials.

Otizm Spektrum Bozukluğu Olan Çocuklar İçin Erken Sosyal İletişim ve Etkileşim Ölçeği (ESİE) Geçerlik ve Güvenirlik Çalışması

Difficulties in nonverbal social communication and interaction skills are one of the diagnostic criteria and distinctive features of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In this study, it was aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the Early Social Communication and Interaction (ESCI) scale, which was developed to assess nonverbal social communication and social interaction skills. Participants of the study consisted of 111 children with ASD aged 28.0-98.0 months. The ESCI scale was individually administered to the children, and interaction behaviors were analyzed by encoding them via video recordings. The validity of the scale was assessed by content and construct validity; reliability was assessed with internal Consistency-Cronbach Alpha and inter-observer reliability. As a result of the principal components analysis to examine the construct validity, the ESCI scale was found to have a one-factor structure which accounts for 72.51% of the variance. It has been determined that the factor loadings of the six measurements in the scale change between .72 and .90. It was found that the scores obtained from the measurements and the average of the total scores increased as the language level became complicated and the internal correlation coefficients between the measurements were significant and changed between .47 and .82. The Cronbach Alpha values for the reliability of the ESCI scale were found to be .87 in total and found to vary between .70 and .93 for the measurements. Findings show that nonverbal social communication and social interaction skills of children with ASD can be assessed with ESCI scale valid and reliable.

The potential of eye-tracking as a sensitive measure of behavioural change in response to intervention

One challenge to the development of effective interventions to support learning and behavioural change in neurodevelopmental disorders is a lack of suitable outcome measures. Eye-tracking has been used widely to chart cognitive development and clinically-relevant group differences in many populations. This proof-of-concept study investigates whether it also has the potential to act as a marker of treatment effects, by testing its sensitivity to differential change over a short period of exposure to an iPad app in typically developing children. The app targets a key skill in early social communication development, by rewarding attention to people, operationalised via a finger-tap on screen. We measured attention to images taken from the app, and a selection of matched stimuli to test generalisation of effects, at baseline and two weeks later. Children were assigned to either an app-exposure or no-app condition in the intervening period. The app exposure group showed increases in fixation on people for images from the app, and for distant-generalisation photographs, at high levels of complexity. We conclude that, with careful selection of stimuli, eye-tracking has the potential to make a valuable contribution to the range of outcome measures available for psycho-behavioural interventions in neurodevelopmental disorders.

How do maternal interaction style and joint attention relate to language development in infants with Down syndrome and typically developing infants?

Down syndrome (DS) is more detrimental to language acquisition compared to other forms of learning disability. It has been shown that early social communication skills are important for language acquisition in the typical population; however few studies have examined the relationship between early social communication and language in DS. The aim of the current study is to compare the relationship between joint attention and concurrent language skills, and maternal interactive style and concurrent language skills in infants with DS and in typically developing (TD) infants matched for mental age. We also investigated if these relationships differ between children with DS and TD children. Twenty-five infants with DS (17–23 months) and 30 TD infants (9–11 months) were assessed on measures of joint attention, maternal interactive style and language. The results indicated a significant positive relationship between responding to joint attention (RJA) and concurrent language for the DS group, and a significant positive relationship between maternal positive expressed emotion (PEEM) and concurrent language for the TD group. We hypothesise that different social-communication factors are associated with language skills in DS, at least between 17 and 23 months of age compared to TD infants of similar non-verbal and general language abilities.

Coordination is key: Joint attention and vocalisation in infant siblings of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Research indicates that social communicative behaviours develop atypically during the second year in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This study evaluated whether these behaviours also differed in the extent to which they were coordinated across modalities. To measure joint attention behaviours (e.g., gaze shifts, gestures), vocalisations and their coordination among a cohort of infants with an older sibling with ASD (heightened risk-HR). This prospective longitudinal study examined 50 HR infants at 14, 18 and 24 months. The Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS)-a structured toy-play task that assesses infant joint attention behaviour-was administered to infants at each age point in the home. Infants' joint attention behaviours, vocalisations and instances where they overlapped were coded from videos. At 36 months, nine infants received an ASD diagnosis (HR-ASD), 15 had a significant language delay (HR-LD) and 26 were classified no diagnosis (HR-ND). Findings revealed that HR-ASD infants produced fewer advanced joint attention behaviours, and their vocalisations were less frequent and less advanced than HR-LD and HR-ND infants. Notably, HR-ASD infants also coordinated these behaviours together less frequently than their HR peers. Differences in the coordination of early communicative behaviours may have negative cascading effects on social and language development for infants who develop ASD. Current intervention practices may be complemented by efforts to increase the coordinated quality of communicative behaviours.

The value of early intervention for children with autism

Abstract Autism is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental condition characterised by difficulties in social communication and social interaction, along with a range of impairing sensory interests or aversions, and repetitive and stereotyped behaviour. Prevalence estimates vary from approximately 1 to 2 in 100. Diagnosis may be as early as 2 years of age, but this is influenced by a range of factors such as the symptom severity, family circumstances and professional factors. Interventions for young children with autism spectrum disorder primarily aim to promote social communication and basic core skills through a number of different behavioural approaches. These may be administered by professionals but also often involve parents as co-therapists. Behavioural interventions primarily incorporate either a developmental approach, based on an understanding of the way that language and communication emerge in typical development, or approaches based on applied behavioural analysis. The evidence base for the effectiveness of interventions for children with autism is limited but a number of randomised control trials have shown benefits across a number of outcome measures, including early social communication in children and parental communication style within parent-child dyads. Emerging findings suggest that earlier and more intensive treatment may result in more favourable outcomes.

Defining Early Social Communication Skills: a Systematic Review and Analysis

Several early social communication skills are theorized to be important for later more complex social behaviors. These skills, such as joint attention, social referencing, and social engagement, emerge very early in young children who are typically developing. For children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental delays, these skills may not emerge naturally and may need specialized interventions. Luckily, early social communication skills are a growing area of research and there is a developing library of potentially effective practices for intervention on these skills. Across these studies, however, there is considerable variability in the terminology, topographies, and categorizations of these skills that can lead to under or over identification of evidence-based practices to address these skills. This systematic review of the literature presents 29 single-case and group design studies that target an early social communication skill and highlight the range of definitions of these pivotal skills. Results suggest that there are overlapping definitions of these early social communication skills that may leave specific skills unaddressed. Ideas for more cohesive definitions and assessment are offered as well as opportunities for future research.

Concurrent Validity and Reliability for the Communication Complexity Scale.

The Communication Complexity Scale (CCS; Brady et al., 2012) was created to fill a void in measures of expressive communication skills in individuals who communicate primarily with presymbolic or early symbolic means. CCS scores reflect expressive communication observed during interactive communication contexts. Two studies were completed to examine the reliability and validity of the revised CCS scores. Participants in both studies had minimal verbal skills (i.e., produced less than 20 functional words). Study 1 examined interobserver agreement, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity for 239 participants with intellectual disabilities between the ages of 3-66 years, assessed with the protocol developed at the University of Kansas (KU CCS). CCS scores were compared with scores from the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales-Second Edition (Sparrow, Cicchetti, & Balla, 2005) and the Communication Matrix (Rowland & Fried-Oken, 2010). Study 2 examined the reliability and concurrent validity for CCS scores derived from 110 children (chronological age = 3-9) with autism from diverse backgrounds. These children were assessed with the Early Social Communication Scale (Mundy et al., 2003). CCS scores were compared with rates of communication derived from the Early Social Communication Scale. CCS scores were moderately correlated with scores from existing measures of early communication. In addition, CCS scores from different raters were reliable, and test-retest scores were highly similar. These findings support the validity and reliability of the CCS when used with individuals across a wide range of ages and with various types of disabilities. The CCS can be used in research and clinical practice to describe extant communication levels in individuals with minimal verbal skills.

Understanding of Intentions in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Intellectual Disability

This study investigates the understanding of intentions in 100 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID; mean IQ 36) between 2 and 10 years of age. A within-subject design with two conditions was used. In the target condition, the experimenter successfully performed the task; while in the unfulfilled attempt condition, the experimenter attempted but did not successfully completed the task. Children with ASD and ID completed the tasks significantly more frequent and showed less off-task behavior in the target condition than in the unsuccessful attempt condition, which might indicate that children with ASD and ID experience difficulty in understanding the intentions of others. Successful completion of the task after an unsuccessful attempt is predicted by the ability to imitate and behavioral inflexibility and is associated with better performance on receptive and expressive language tests. The latter results are in line with several other studies suggesting a relation between the understanding of intentions and early social communication and language.

Longitudinal predictors of early language in infants with Down syndrome: A preliminary study

PurposeChildren with Down syndrome (DS) typically have marked delays in language development relative to their general cognitive development, with particular difficulties in expressive compared to receptive language. Although early social communication skills, including gestures and joint attention, have been shown to be related to later language outcomes in DS, knowledge is limited as to whether these factors exclusively predict outcomes, or whether other factors (e.g. perceptual and non-verbal skills) are involved. This study addressed this question. MethodLongitudinal data for a group of infants with DS (n = 14) and a group of typically-developing (TD) infants (n = 35) were collected on measures that have been shown to predict language in TD infants and/or those with developmental delays. These included: non-verbal mental ability, speech segmentation skills, and early social communication skills (initiating and responding to joint attention, initiating behavioural requests). ResultsLinear regression analyses showed that speech segmentation and initiating joint attention were the strongest predictors of later language in the TD group, whereas non-verbal mental ability and responding to joint attention were the strongest predictors of later language for infants with DS. ConclusionsSpeech segmentation ability may not determine language outcomes in DS, and language acquisition may be more constrained by social communication and general cognitive skills.

Verbal and nonverbal outcomes of toddlers with and without autism spectrum disorder, language delay, and global developmental delay

Background and Aims Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit a heterogeneous clinical phenotype with wide variability in their language and intellectual profiles that complicates efforts at early detection. There is limited research examining observational measures to characterize differences between young children with and without ASD and co-occurring language delay (LD) and global developmental delay (GDD). The first aim of this study was to compare early social communication measured in the second year of life in children diagnosed at age 3 with ASD, developmental delays (DD), and typical development (TD). The second aim was to compare early social communication in six subgroups of children: ASD, ASD+LD, ASD+GDD, LD, GDD, and TD. Our third aim was to determine the collective and unique contributions of early social communication to predict verbal and nonverbal developmental outcomes at three years of age for children with and without ASD. Methods Analyses of covariance controlling for maternal education were employed to examine group differences in social communication in 431 toddlers recruited through screening in primary care. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to evaluate associations between the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS) Behavior Sample composite standard scores and Mullen Scales of Early Learning T scores for children with and without ASD. Results Distinct patterns of early social communication were evident by 20 months. Children with TD differed significantly from children with ASD and DD on all three CSBS Behavior Sample composites. Children with ASD had significantly lower scores than those with DD and TD on the social and symbolic composites. Among the six subgroups, all three composites of the CSBS Behavior Sample differentiated children with TD from all other subgroups. Children with ASD+GDD scored significantly lower than all other subgroups on social and symbolic composites. Patterns of social communication emerged for children with and without ASD, which held among subgroups divided by developmental level. The CSBS Behavior Sample social and symbolic composites contributed unique variance in predicting developmental outcomes in both groups. The speech composite contributed unique variance to expressive language, receptive language, and visual reception in children without ASD, and contributed uniquely to expressive language only for children with ASD. Conclusions The CSBS Behavior Sample, an observational measure for children aged 12–24 months, detected social communication delays and explained a significant amount of variance in verbal and nonverbal outcomes a year later in this large sample of young children grouped by ASD diagnosis and developmental level. Implications In light of the continued search for early predictors of ASD and developmental delay, our findings underscore the importance of monitoring early social communication skills, including the expression of emotions, eye gaze, gestures, rate of communication, joint attention, understanding words, and object use in play. There is a need for clinical utility of screening and evaluation tools that can detect social communication delays in very young children. This would enable intervention for infants and toddlers who show social communication delays which may be early signs for ASD or other DD, rather than waiting to confirm a formal diagnosis.

Early social communication in infants with fragile X syndrome and infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder

BackgroundLittle research in fragile X syndrome (FXS) has prospectively examined early social communication. AimsTo compare early social communication in infants with FXS, infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASIBs), and typically developing (TD) infants. Methods and proceduresParticipants were 18 infants with FXS, 21 ASIBs, and 22 TD infants between 7.5–14.5 months. Social communication was coded using the Communication Complexity Scale during the administration of Autism Observation Scale for Infants. Outcomes and resultsDescriptively different patterns were seen across the three groups. Overall infants with FXS had lower social communication than ASIBs or TD infants when controlling for nonverbal cognitive abilities. However, infants with FXS had similar levels of social communication as ASIBs or TD infants during peek-a-boo. No differences were observed between ASIBs and TD infants. For all infants, higher social communication was related to lower ASD risk. Conclusions and implicationsFindings provide insight into the developmental course of social communication in FXS. The dynamic nature of social games may help to stimulate communication in infants with FXS. Language interventions with a strong social component may be particularly effective for promoting language development in FXS.

Mother-Infant and Extra-Dyadic Interactions with a New Social Partner: Developmental Trajectories of Early Social Abilities during Play.

Mother–infant interactions during feeding and play are pivotal experiences in the development of infants’ early social abilities (Stern, 1985, 1995; Biringen, 2000). Stern indicated distinctive characteristics of mother–infant interactions, respectively, during feeding and play, suggesting to evaluate both to better describe the complexity of such early affective and social experiences (Stern, 1996). Moreover, during the first years of life, infants acquire cognitive and social skills that allow them to interact with new social partners in extra-dyadic interactions. However, the relations between mother–child interactions and infants’ social skills in extra-dyadic interactions are still unknown. We investigated longitudinally the relations between mother–child interactions during feeding and play and child’s pre-verbal communicative abilities in extra-dyadic interactions during play. 20 dyads were evaluated at T1 (infants aged between 9–22 months) and 6 months later, at T2. The interdyadic differences in mother–infant interactions during feeding and play were evaluated, respectively, with the “Feeding Scale” (Chatoor et al., 1997) and with the “Play Scale” (Chatoor, 2006) and the socio-communicative abilities of children with a new social partner during play were evaluated with the “Early Social Communication Scales” (Mundy et al., 2003). We distinguished the dyads into two categories: dyads with functional interactions (high dyadic reciprocity, low dyadic conflict) and dyads with dysfunctional interactions (lower dyadic reciprocity, higher dyadic conflict). At T1, infants belonging to dyads with dysfunctional interactions were significantly lower in “Initiating Joint Attention” and in “Responding to Joint Attention” in interaction with a new social partner compared to the infants belonging to dyads with functional interactions. At T2, infants belonging to dyads with dysfunctional interactions were significantly lower in “Initiating Social Interactions” with a new social partner compared to the infants belonging to dyads with functional interactions. There were significant correlations between the quality of mother–infant interactions during feeding and infants’ social abilities in interaction with a stranger both at T1 and at T2. This study showed a stable relation over time between mother–child interactions and child’s social communicative skills in extra-dyadic interactions.