Caregiver Touch-Speech Communication and Infant Responses in 12-Month-Olds at High Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder

[Preventive early intervention strategies for neurodevelopmental disorders of high-risk infants]

Neurodevelopmental disorders in children have become a significant global public health concern, impacting child health worldwide. In China, the current intervention model for high-risk infants involves early diagnosis and early treatment. However, in recent years, overseas studies have explored novel preventive early intervention strategies for neurodevelopmental disorders in high-risk infants, achieving promising results. This article provides a comprehensive review of the optimal timing, methods, and intervention models of the preventive early intervention strategies for neurodevelopmental disorders in high-risk infants. The aim is to enhance the awareness and knowledge of healthcare professionals regarding preventive early intervention strategies for neurodevelopmental disorders in high-risk infants, facilitate clinical research and application of such interventions in China, and ultimately reduce the incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders in this high-risk population.

Bidding on the go: Links between walking, social actions, and caregiver responses in infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder

The development of walking is associated with a shift in how neurotypical infants initiate social interactions. Walking infants are more likely to locate objects in distant places, carry them, and then share those objects by approaching caregivers and using gestures to show or offer their discoveries (i.e., moving bids). The simultaneous organization of the behaviors necessary to generate moving bids requires the coordination of multiple skills-walking, fine motor skills, and gesturing. Infants with an elevated likelihood (EL) for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibit differences and delays in each of these behaviors. This study investigated interconnections between infant walking, social actions, and caregiver responses in 18-month-old EL infants with diverse developmental outcomes (ASD, non-ASD language delay, no diagnosis). We observed 85 infant-caregiver dyads at home during everyday activities for 45 minutes and identified all times when infants walked, instances of walking paired with social action (i.e., approaching the caregiver, approaching while carrying an object, producing a moving bid), and whether caregivers responded to their infants' social actions. There were no group differences in infants' production of social actions. Caregiver responses, however, were more clearly modulated by outcome group. While all caregivers were similarly and highly likely to respond to moving bids, caregivers of EL-ASD infants were substantially more likely to respond when their infants simply approached them (with or without an object in hand). Taken together, this research underscores the complexity of EL infant-caregiver interactions and highlights the role that each partner plays in shaping how they unfold.

Robot touch with speech boosts positive emotions

A gentle touch is an essential part of human interaction that produces a positive care effect. Previously, robotics studies have shown that robots can reproduce a gentle touch that elicits similar, positive emotional responses in humans. However, whether the positive emotional effects of a robot's touch combined with speech can be enhanced using a multimodal approach remains unclear. This study supports the hypothesis that a multimodal interaction combining gentle touch and speech by a robot enhances positive emotional responses. Here, we conducted an experiment using a robotic arm to perform a gentle touch combined with speech and compared three conditions: touch alone, speech alone, and touch with speech. We assessed participants' subjective ratings of valence, arousal, and human likeliness using subjective emotional responses. Furthermore, we recorded facial electromyography (EMG) from the corrugator supercilii and zygomaticus major muscles and measured skin conductance levels (SCLs) as physiological emotional responses. Our results show that touch combined with speech elicited higher subjective valence and arousal ratings, stronger zygomaticus major EMG and SCL activities than touch alone. The results suggest that the positive emotional effects of robotic touch can be boosted by combining elements of speech.

The Vocabulary of Infants with an Elevated Likelihood and Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Infant Language Studies Using the CDI and MSEL

Diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are typically accompanied by atypical language development, which can be noticeable even before diagnosis. The siblings of children diagnosed with ASD are at elevated likelihood for ASD diagnosis and have been shown to have higher prevalence rates than the general population. In this paper, we systematically reviewed studies looking at the vocabulary size and development of infants with autism. One inclusion criterion was that infants were grouped either pre-diagnostically as elevated or typical likelihood or post-diagnostically as ASD or without ASD. This review focused on studies that tested infants up to 24 months of age and that assessed vocabulary either via the parent-completed MacArthur–Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory (CDI) or the clinician-administered Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL). Our systematic search yielded 76 studies. A meta-analysis was performed on these studies that compared the vocabulary scores of EL and TL infants pre-diagnostically and the scores of ASD and non-ASD infants post-diagnostically. Both pre- and post-diagnostically, it was found that the EL and ASD infants had smaller vocabularies than their TL and non-ASD peers, respectively. The effect sizes across studies were heterogenous, prompting additional moderator analyses of age and sub-group analyses of the language measure used (CDI or MSEL) as potential moderators of the effect size. Age was found to be a moderator both in the pre- and post-diagnostical groups, however, language measure was not a moderator in either diagnostic group. Interpretations and future research directions are discussed based on these findings.

Electrophysiological Measures of Tactile and Auditory Processing in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder

Behavioral differences in responding to tactile and auditory stimuli are widely reported in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the neural mechanisms underlying distinct tactile and auditory reactivity patterns in ASD remain unclear with theories implicating differences in both perceptual and attentional processes. The current study sought to investigate (1) the neural indices of early perceptual and later attentional factors underlying tactile and auditory processing in children with and without ASD, and (2) the relationship between neural indices of tactile and auditory processing and ASD symptomatology. Participants included 14, 6–12-year-olds with ASD and 14 age- and non-verbal IQ matched typically developing (TD) children. Children participated in an event-related potential (ERP) oddball paradigm during which they watched a silent video while being presented with tactile and auditory stimuli (i.e., 80% standard speech sound/a/; 10% oddball speech sound/i/; 10% novel vibrotactile stimuli on the fingertip with standard speech sound/a/). Children’s early and later ERP responses to tactile (P1 and N2) and auditory stimuli (P1, P3a, and P3b) were examined. Non-parametric analyses showed that children with ASD displayed differences in early perceptual processing of auditory (i.e., lower amplitudes at central region of interest), but not tactile, stimuli. Analysis of later attentional components did not show differences in response to tactile and auditory stimuli in the ASD and TD groups. Together, these results suggest that differences in auditory responsivity patterns could be related to perceptual factors in children with ASD. However, despite differences in caregiver-reported sensory measures, children with ASD did not differ in their neural reactivity to infrequent touch-speech stimuli compared to TD children. Nevertheless, correlational analyses confirmed that inter-individual differences in neural responsivity to tactile and auditory stimuli were related to social skills in all children. Finally, we discuss how the paradigm and stimulus type used in the current study may have impacted our results. These findings have implications for everyday life, where individual differences in responding to tactile and auditory stimuli may impact social functioning.

Early development in autism: How developmental cascades help us understand the emergence of developmental differences

Many theories of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) focus on a single system or factor as an explanatory mechanism for autism symptoms and behavior. However, there is growing recognition that ASD is a complex, multisystem neurodevelopmental condition with origins in prenatal life. Researchers therefore need a conceptual framework that allows examination of the interplay between multiple interacting domains and systems and the ways in which they extend their influence beyond the individual into the surrounding environment. The developmental cascades perspective suggests that even relatively small perturbations in early emerging behaviors in domains that are not traditionally linked may influence subsequent achievements across these areas. In this chapter, we illustrate how a developmental cascades framework can be used to inform the study of developmental differences. The developmental cascades perspective provides us with conceptual and methodological tools for considering how variation in children's real time behavior can provide new insights into sources of variation in their developmental trajectories and outcomes. It also suggests approaches for intervention that leverage targeted skills in novel ways, creating opportunities to support development in other domains and fine-tune caregiver behavior to create powerful moments for infant learning.

Caregiver Touch-Speech Communication and Infant Responses in 12-Month-Olds at High Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Multimodal communication may facilitate attention in infants. This study examined the presentation of caregiver touch-only and touch + speech input to 12-month-olds at high (HRA) and low risk for ASD. Findings indicated that, although both groups received a greater number of touch + speech bouts compared to touch-only bouts, the duration of overall touch that overlapped with speech was significantly greater in the HRA group. Additionally, HRA infants were less responsive to touch-only bouts compared to touch + speech bouts suggesting that their mothers may use more touch + speech communication to elicit infant responses. Nonetheless, the exact role of touch in multimodal communication directed towards infants at high risk for ASD warrants further exploration.