Abstract
Atypical response to tactile input is associated with greater socio-communicative impairments in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current study examined overt orienting to caregiver-initiated touch in 12-month-olds at high risk for ASD (HRA) with (HRA+) and without (HRA−) a later diagnosis of ASD compared to low-risk comparison infants. Findings indicate that infants that go on to receive a diagnosis of ASD may more frequently fail to shift their attention in response to caregiver touch and when they do, they may be more likely to orient away from touch. Additionally, failure to respond to touch predicts ADOS severity scores at outcome suggesting that atypical response to touch may be an early indicator of autism severity.
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Acknowledgments
We are extremely grateful to the families for their invaluable contribution to the Infant Sibling Project. We thank all the students and research assistants who assisted with data collection and coding. We also thank Dr. Rana Abu-Zhaya for her guidance while developing the coding system used for this project. This study was supported by grants from the Simons Foundation (137186) to CAN and the NIH-NIDCD (R01-DC010290) to CAN and HTF.
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GK, BK and AS contributed to data analysis and manuscript writing. HTF and CAN are the principal investigators of the larger Infant Sibling Project and contributed to data analysis and manuscript revisions. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
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Kadlaskar, G., Seidl, A., Tager-Flusberg, H. et al. Atypical Response to Caregiver Touch in Infants at High Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 49, 2946–2955 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04021-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-019-04021-0