Early Social Attention Impairments in Autism: Social Orienting, Joint Attention, and Attention to Distress.

Abstract

This study investigated social attention impairments in autism (social orienting, joint attention, and attention to another's distress) and their relations to language ability. Three- to four-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 72), 3- to 4-year-old developmentally delayed children (n = 34), and 12- to 46-month-old typically developing children (n = 39), matched on mental age, were compared on measures of social orienting, joint attention, and attention to another's distress. Children with autism performed significantly worse than the comparison groups in all of these domains. Combined impairments in joint attention and social orienting were found to best distinguish young children with ASD from those without ASD. Structural equation modeling indicated that joint attention was the best predictor of concurrent language ability. Social orienting and attention to distress were indirectly related to language through their relations with joint attention. These results help to clarify the nature of social attention impairments in autism, offer clues to developmental mechanisms, and suggest targets for early intervention.

Exploring the Nature of Joint Attention Impairments in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Associated Social and Cognitive Skills

“…However, in this study, a significant correlation was found between the IJA and RJA skills of children with ASD, which is in line with the results of some other studies in young children with ASD (e.g., Bono, Daley, and Sigman, 2004;Dawson et al, 2004;Siller andSigman, 2008, Toth, Munson, Meltzoff, Dawson, 2006). Even after controlling for mental age, a significant correlation was found between RJA and IJA skills (on a lower level).…”

“…The individual differences in RJA skills were significantly related to mental age and language abilities. However, as other studies have shown, children with ASD are more impaired in RJA skills than children with developmental delays or children matched on mental age (e.g., Dawson et al, 2004).…”

“…This tendency seems to be reflected in a social preference, which children are showing from the day they are born (e.g., Cassia, Valenza, Simion, & Leo, 2008;Farroni et al, 2005;Valenza, Simion, Cassia, & Umiltà, 1996) and that stimulates them to look at people, and to prefer social stimuli like voices and faces over nonsocial stimuli. Children and adults with ASD do not show this typical tendency to orient towards social stimuli and also tend to use different face scanning patterns (Celani, 2002;Dawson et al, 2004;Fletcher-Watson, Benson, Frank, Leekam, & Findlay, 2009;Jones, Carr, & Klin, 2008;Maestro et al, 2005;Pelphrey et al, 2002;Sasson et al, 2007). This observation is believed to be related to a deficit in social motivation, reflecting an absent rewarding value of social sharing (Vismara & Lyons, 2007), and is likely to persist throughout development (Koegel, Koegel, & Carter, 1998).…”

A short-term longitudinal study of correlates and sequelae of attachment security in autism

“…This paradigm had been previously shown to elicit such empathic responses from typically developing infants (Zahn-Waxler, Robinson, & Emde, 1992; Zahn-Waxler & Radke-Yarrow, 1982) as well as children with autism and with intellectual disability (Dawson et al, 2004; Sigman, Kasari, Kwon, & Yirmiya, 1992). Such early-emerging behavioral responses to another person’s distress have been found to be developmentally linked with later expressions of empathy (Hutman & Dapretto, 2009; Zahn-Waxler, Radke-Yarrow, Wagner, & Chapman, 1992) and thus represent a good proximal domain for an initial exploration of the developmental consequences of attachment security in autism.…”

“…Such early-emerging behavioral responses to another person’s distress have been found to be developmentally linked with later expressions of empathy (Hutman & Dapretto, 2009; Zahn-Waxler, Radke-Yarrow, Wagner, & Chapman, 1992) and thus represent a good proximal domain for an initial exploration of the developmental consequences of attachment security in autism. A focus on empathy is further motivated by previous studies indicating that preschool-age children with autism (Dawson et al, 2004; Sigman et al, 1992) as well as infants and toddlers (Charman et al, 1997; Hutman et al, 2010) are less attuned to the displays of distress of others and are less likely to engage in comforting behaviors when compared to typically developing children.…”