Atypical object exploration in infants at-risk for autism during the first year of life

Author(s)Kaur, Maninderjit
Author(s)Srinivasan, Sudha M.
Author(s)Bhat, Anjana N.
UD AuthorKaur, Maninderjiten_US
UD AuthorSrinivasan, Sudha M.en_US
UD AuthorBhat, Anjana N.en_US
Date Accessioned2015-12-01T16:07:06Z
Date Available2015-12-01T16:07:06Z
Copyright DateCopyright © 2015 Kaur, Srinivasan and Bhat.en_US
Publication Date2015-06-16
DescriptionPublisher's PDF.en_US
AbstractAutism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder usually diagnosed by the end of the second year of life. Early signs of ASD within the first year of life are still unclear. The main purpose of the present study was to compare object exploration skills between infants at-risk for ASD and typically developing (TD) infants to determine early markers for autism within the first year of life. Sixteen at-risk infants and 16 TD infants were longitudinally followed from 6 to 15 months of age during an object exploration task involving three objects with distinct size, shape, and texture, i.e., a long rattle, a rigid circular ball, and a soft circular koosh ball. All sessions were videotaped for coding of manual exploration (grasping and dropping), oral exploration (mouthing), and visual exploration (looking). We also obtained follow-up outcomes using various developmental questionnaires at 18 months and email follow-up on developmental delays/ASD diagnosis after the infants’ second birthdays. Our results showed object-based differences in exploration patterns that extended across both groups. We also noticed context-dependent group differences for various exploratory behaviors across objects and ages. Specifically, at 6 months, at-risk infants showed less grasping of the rigid ball as well as less mouthing and greater looking at the rattle compared to TD infants. At 9 and 12 months, at-risk infants demonstrated significantly lower levels of purposeful dropping of all objects and greater looking at the rattle. Lastly, at 15 months, at-risk infants showed persistent mouthing of the rigid ball and rattle compared to TD infants. In addition, 10 out of 16 at-risk infants developed various motor, social, and language delays or ASD diagnosis at follow-up. Taken together, early context-dependent delays/abnormalities in object exploration could be markers for future developmental delays in infants at-risk for autism. Moreover, promoting early object experiences through socially embedded, free and structured play could have significant implications for multisystem development including perceptuo-motor, social communication, and cognitive development in at-risk infants.en_US
DepartmentUniversity of Delaware. Department of Physical Therapy.en_US
DepartmentUniversity of Delaware. Department of Psychology.en_US
CitationKaur M, Srinivasan SM and Bhat AN (2015) Atypical object exploration in infants at-risk for autism during the first year of life. Front. Psychol. 6:798. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00798en_US
DOI10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00798en_US
ISSN1664-1078en_US
URLhttp://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/17250
Languageen_USen_US
PublisherFrontiers Media S.A.en_US
dc.rightsCC-BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This document is protected by copyright and was first published by Frontier. All rights reserved. It is reproduced with permission.en_US
dc.sourceFrontiers in Psychologyen_US
dc.source.urihttp://journal.frontiersin.org/journal/psychologyen_US
TitleAtypical object exploration in infants at-risk for autism during the first year of lifeen_US
TypeArticleen_US
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