Development of fine motor skills is associated with expressive language outcomes in infants at high and low risk for autism spectrum disorder

Abstract

BackgroundA growing body of research suggests that fine motor abilities are associated with skills in a variety of domains in both typical and atypical development. In this study, we investigated developmental trajectories of fine motor skills between 6 and 24 months in relation to expressive language outcomes at 36 months in infants at high and low familial risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD).MethodsParticipants included 71 high-risk infants without ASD diagnoses, 30 high-risk infants later diagnosed with ASD, and 69 low-risk infants without ASD diagnoses. As part of a prospective, longitudinal study, fine motor skills were assessed at 6, 12, 18, and 24 months of age and expressive language outcomes at 36 months using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning. Diagnosis of ASD was determined at the infant’s last visit to the lab (18, 24, or 36 months) using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule.ResultsHierarchical linear modeling revealed that high-risk infants who later developed ASD showed significantly slower growth in fine motor skills between 6 and 24 months, compared to their typically developing peers. In contrast to group differences in growth from age 6 months, cross-sectional group differences emerged only in the second year of life. Also, fine motor skills at 6 months predicted expressive language outcomes at 3 years of age.ConclusionsThese results highlight the importance of utilizing longitudinal approaches in measuring early fine motor skills to reveal subtle group differences in infancy between ASD high-risk and low-risk infant populations and to predict their subsequent language outcomes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s11689-018-9231-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Language growth in very young siblings at risk for autism spectrum disorder

“…More specifically, modifications in gesture development seem to elicit different responses of caregivers which may distinctively influence language development (Choi et al . , Iverson , Karasik et al . , , Libertus and Violi ).…”

Elevated Thresholds for Light Touch in Children With Autism Reflect More Conservative Perceptual Decision-Making Rather Than a Sensory Deficit

“…For example, sensory ability on the palm contributes to grip and manual dexterity, both of which have been reported to be altered in individuals with ASD (MacDonald et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2015;Travers et al, 2017). Notably, fine motor skills in high risk infants predict later outcomes in expressive language (Choi et al, 2018) and autism symptom severity (Iverson et al, 2019). These findings highlight the potential for deficits in very low level sensory and motor abilities to "cascade" into deficits in the higher-level behaviors implicated in ASD.…”

Indicadores tempranos (0-36 meses) de riesgo de trastorno del espectro autista. Un estudio de revisión.

“…El análisis de los resultados expuestos en la sección anterior pone de relieve la existencia de diferentes síntomas de aparición temprana que se han erigido como predictores robustos de un diagnóstico posterior de TEA. Entre estos síntomas, destacan los indicadores relacionados con diferencias en aspectos puntuales de perfil sensorial en comparación con los niños sin TEA (Damiano et al, 2018;, la percepción visual de estímulos de carácter social (Falck-Ytter et al 2018;Hendry et al, 2018), determinados aspectos del funcionamiento ejecutivo relacionados con la capacidad para dirigir la atención (Baranek et al, 2018;Cheung et al, 2018), la adquisición de habilidades motrices finas (Choi et al, 2018), u otros hitos evolutivos (Davidovitch et al, 2018).…”