Autism Adversely Affects Auditory Joint Engagement During Parent-toddler Interactions

An Exploratory Study on the Association between Atypical Behavioral Responses to Tickling and Autistic Traits in Japanese Children

Although play is an essential occupation for children, parents of children with autistic traits tend to struggle with play-based interpersonal interaction with them. Tickling play appears to be one of the most interpersonal forms of play because nobody can tickle themselves. However, atypical tactile processing (e.g. tactile sensitivity) has been reported in children with autistic traits, who may exhibit atypical behavioral responses during tickling play. Our aim was to investigate the association between autistic traits and behavioral responses during parent-child tickling play in Japanese young children. We recorded tickling interaction between children and their parents using behavior coding with six behavioral items. Autistic traits and tactile sensitivity were measured using parent-reported questionnaires. Results showed two behavioral responses were significantly associated with autistic traits in all children: "approach with positive emotional response" and "no response" were negatively and positively correlated with autistic traits, respectively. This exploratory study suggests that behavioral responses during tickling play may be associated with autistic traits.

Computer Vision Analysis of Caregiver-Child Interactions in Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Preliminary Report

We report preliminary results of computer vision analysis of caregiver-child interactions during free play with children diagnosed with autism (N = 29, 41-91 months), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, N = 22, 48-100 months), or combined autism + ADHD (N = 20, 56-98 months), and neurotypical children (NT, N = 7, 55-95 months). We conducted micro-analytic analysis of 'reaching to a toy,' as a proxy for initiating or responding to a toy play bout. Dyadic analysis revealed two clusters of interaction patterns, which differed in frequency of 'reaching to a toy' and caregivers' contingent responding to the child's reach for a toy by also reaching for a toy. Children in dyads with higher caregiver responsiveness had less developed language, communication, and socialization skills. Clusters were not associated with diagnostic groups. These results hold promise for automated methods of characterizing caregiver responsiveness in dyadic interactions for assessment and outcome monitoring in clinical trials.

Responses to Infantile Cuteness Explain the Link between Autistic Traits and Reduced Maternal Attachment

This study examined the link between autistic traits and mother-to-child attachment by introducing two mediators: emotional responsiveness to the infantile cuteness of children and negative parental self-concept. We screened 1,317 mothers and recruited those who have a child with high or low autistic traits based on their Autism Spectrum Quotient score. Fifty mothers in the high autistic and 71 mothers in the low autistic groups participated. Results showed that the autistic traits of children are related to weak maternal attachment. Reduced emotional responses to cuteness and negative self-concept mediated the link. These findings suggest that supporting mothers who have a child with autism spectrum disorder may benefit securing mother-to-child attachment as well as the wellbeing of both mother and child.

Auditory joint attention skills: Development and diagnostic differences during infancy

To date, joint attention skill assessments have focused on children's responses to multimodal bids (RJA) and their initiation of bids (IJA) to multimodal spectacles. Here we gain a systematic view of auditory joint attention skills using a novel assessment that measures both auditory and multimodal RJA and IJA. In Study 1, 47 typically developing (TD) children were tested 5 times from 12 to 30 months to document auditory joint attention skill development. In Study 2, 113 toddlers (39 TD, 33 autism spectrum disorder [ASD], and 41 non-ASD developmental disorders [DD]; average age 22.4 months) were tested to discern the effects of ASD. Our findings fit well within the established depiction of joint attention skills with one important caveat: auditory items were far more difficult to execute than multimodal ones. By 24 months, TD children passed multimodal RJA items at the near-ceiling level, an accomplishment not reached even by 30 months for auditory RJA items. Intentional communicative IJA bids also emerged more slowly to auditory spectacles than to multimodal spectacles. Toddlers with DD outperformed toddlers with ASD on multimodal RJA items but toddlers in both groups rarely passed any auditory RJA items. Toddlers with ASD often monitored their partner's attention during IJA items, albeit less often than toddlers with DD and TD toddlers, but they essentially never produced higher-level IJA bids, regardless of modality. Future studies should investigate further how variations in bids and targets affect auditory joint attention skills and probe the relation between these skills and language development.