Factor RS, Arriaga RI, Morrier MJ, Mathys JB, Dirienzo M, Miller CA, Southerland AM, Abowd GD, Ousley OY. Development of an interactive tool of early social responsiveness to track autism risk in infants and toddlers.
Dev Med Child Neurol 2022;
64:323-330. [PMID:
34427344 DOI:
10.1111/dmcn.15035]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2020] [Revised: 06/01/2021] [Accepted: 07/30/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
AIM
To evaluate the psychometric properties of a 4-minute assessment designed to identify early autism spectrum disorder (ASD) status through evaluation of early social responsiveness (ESR).
METHOD
This retrospective, preliminary study included children between 13 and 24 months (78 males, 79 females mean age 19.4mo, SD 3.1) from two independent data sets (an experimental/training sample [n=120] and a validation/test sample [n=37]). The ESR assessment examined social behaviors (e.g. eye contact, smiling, ease-of-social-engagement) across five common play activities (e.g. rolling a ball, looking at a book). Data analyses examined reliability and accuracy of the assessment in identifying ESR abilities and in discriminating children with and without ASD.
RESULTS
Results indicated adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the ESR assessment. Receiver operator curve analysis identified a cutoff score that discriminated infants with ASD-risk from peers in the training sample. This score yielded moderate sensitivity and high specificity for best-estimate ASD diagnosis in the validation sample.
INTERPRETATION
Preliminary findings indicated that brief, systematic observation of ESR may assist in discriminating infants with and without ASD, providing concrete evidence to validate or supplement parents', pediatricians', or clinicians' concerns. Future studies could examine the utility of ESR 'growth curves'.
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