Risk Factors Associated With Language in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Clues to Underlying Mechanisms

Abstract

a Purpose: Identifying risk factors associated with neurodevelopmental disorders is an important line of research, as it will lead to earlier identification of children who could benefit from interventions that support optimal developmental outcomes. The primary goal of this review was to summarize research on risk factors associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Method: The review focused on studies of infants who have older siblings with ASD, with particular emphasis on risk factors associated with language impairment that affects the majority of children with ASD. Findings from this body of work were compared to the literature on specific language impairment.Results: A wide range of risk factors has been found for ASD, including demographic (e.g., male, family history), behavioral (e.g., gesture, motor) and neural risk markers (e.g., atypical lateralization for speech and reduced functional connectivity). Environmental factors, such as caregiver interaction, have not been found to predict language outcomes. Many of the risk markers for ASD are also found in studies of risk for specific language impairment, including demographic, behavioral, and neural factors. Conclusions: There are significant gaps in the literature and limitations in the current research that preclude direct cross-syndrome comparisons. Future research directions are outlined that could address these limitations.

Neurobiological Bases of Autism Spectrum Disorders and Implications for Early Intervention: A Brief Overview

“…Discerning the different types of communication acts becomes of paramount importance. Since, in general, children with ASD are not particularly interested in these kinds of social communication behaviors, early focused intervention might increase their ability to begin to prioritize social information [5, 6]. Consequently, when dealing with ASD, it is important to be aware of the nonexhibited behaviors in addition to those behaviors exhibited by the child.…”

“…In addition, joint attention skills that emerge as early as at 10 months of age are the “building blocks” for later social, pragmatic, and cognitive development [5, 8, 20]. One of the most significant prelinguistic social communicative challenges seen in youngsters with ASD is the inappropriate use of eye contact, eye gaze, and joint at­tention [11, 12, 21].…”

“…Furthermore, individuals with ASD exhibit problems in the linguistic subdomain of pragmatics described as the ability to exhibit appropriate use of language for social purposes (e.g., turn taking, humor appreciation, processing of metaphorical versus concrete language, usage of greetings, reading facial expression, etc.) [2, 5]. A recent review by Westby [6] discussed the neurobiological underpinnings related to ASD vis-à-vis affective and social ToM under the umbrella term of social neuroscience as advanced by Cacioppo and Bertson [7] and Baron-Cohen [8].…”

Issues in Identification and Assessment of Children with Autism and a Proposed Resource Toolkit for Speech-Language Pathologists

“…Those with average IQ have better social behavior and more subtle autism symptoms, making it more difficult to meet the cutoff scores on diagnostic tests so that girls with ASD may go undetected. Similarly, standard test instruments designed around male ASD symptoms may underlie the higher prevalence of FXS boys with ASD than of girls [41]. An ASD Female Phenotype Emerges While some researchers found no differences between nonverbal boys and girls with ASD in terms of cognitive and adaptive skills [45], discrepant results were found for verbal children with ASD.…”

“…Bishop [35, p. 624] employs the concept of phenomimicry to explain that the ASD phenotype can lead to language impairment but the resemblance to SLI is superficial as the SLI genetic risk factors are absent in those with ASD and language impairment. In fact, Tager-Flusberg [41] highlights the risk factors shared by ASD and SLI, such as family history and being a boy, limited gestural communication, poor receptive language, delays in motor development, and atypical neural responses to auditory stimuli. However, uncovering the risk factors associated specifically with SLI is hampered due to the imbalance between the larger amount of ASD research compared to that in SLI, fewer SLI developmental studies, and the variability in research methodologies and paradigms.…”