Initiating joint attention use in infants at high-risk for autism spectrum disorder

Impairment in initiating joint attention (IJA) is associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children, although it is unclear when impairments arise. Due to the early development of IJA use and late diagnosis of ASD, groups at high-risk of ASD, such as infants with an older sibling with ASD (ASIBs) and infants with fragile X syndrome (FXS), provide opportunities to study early IJA behaviours for children who are later diagnosed with ASD. This study analysed these two groups to determine if IJA use differed compared with typically developing (TD) peers at 12 months and whether IJA was associated with later ASD outcomes.

An experimental attention task was used to analyse IJA gaze shifts and gestures in the high-risk groups. Clinical best estimate diagnoses were given to each participant to compare IJA behaviours to ASD severity.

No differences in the frequency of IJA gaze shifts and gestures were found between 12-month-old ASIBs and TD controls, but infants with FXS demonstrated a significantly reduced range of IJA gaze shifts relative to TD controls. Additionally, ASD outcomes at 24 months were related to IJA use for infants with FXS at 12 months, but not infant ASIBs, although these findings were explained by differences in nonverbal cognitive development.

Although previous studies have reported delays in IJA use in children with FXS and ASIBs at ages 21 and 14 months, respectively, our results suggest IJA behaviours for these high-risk groups are not distinct from TD children at 12 months. When differences were found at 12 months, they were explained by nonverbal cognitive development, particularly for infants with FXS. Differences in IJA use at 12 months in this study were too small to serve as a potential indicator of later ASD.