CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 1,011Autism Spectrum Disorder ResearchChild Nutrition and Feeding IssuesChild and Animal Learning Development

A Prospective Study of the Emergence of Early Behavioral Signs of Autism

Open access
Ozonoff, Sally, Iosif, Ana-Maria, Baguio, Fam, Cook, Ian C., Hill, Monique Moore, Hutman, Ted, Rogers, Sally J., Rozga, Agata +4 more·2010·Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
DOI 10.1016/j.jaac.2009.11.009PMC PMC2923050
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Objective To examine prospectively the emergence of behavioral signs of autism in the first years of life in infants at low and high risk for autism. Method A prospective longitudinal design was used to compare 25 infants later diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with 25 gender-matched low-risk children later determined to have typical development. Participants were evaluated at 6, 12, 18, 24, and 36 months of age. Frequencies of gaze to faces, social smiles, and directed vocalizations were coded from video and rated by examiners. Results The frequency of gaze to faces, shared smiles, and vocalizations to others were highly comparable between groups at 6 months of age, but significantly declining trajectories over time were apparent in the group later diagnosed with ASD. Group differences were significant by 12 months of age on most variables. Although repeated evaluation documented loss of skills in most infants with ASD, most parents did not report a regression in their child's development. Conclusions These results suggest that behavioral signs of autism are not present at birth, as once suggested by Kanner, but emerge over time through a process of diminishment of key social communication behaviors. More children may present with a regressive course than previously thought, but parent report methods do not capture this phenomenon well. Implications for onset classification systems and clinical screening are also discussed.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.jaac.2009.11.009

Cites

9 of 9 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Studies of infants at high familial risk for autism have found that characteristic social deficits in ASD emerge during the latter part of the first and in the second year of life.

    “Studies of infants at high familial risk for autism can provide insight into the early development of autism and have found that characteristic social deficits in ASD emerge during the latter part of the first and in the second year of life 3,4 .”

    From Early brain development in infants at high risk for autism spectrum disorder (2017) · cites this paper as [3]

  • For many children with ASD, regression may take the form of a subtle plateauing, loss of engagement, or failure to acquire more sophisticated social-communication skills as expected rather than an identifiable loss of actual skills.

    “For example, recent studies suggest that for many children with ASD, regression may take the form of a subtle plateauing, loss of engagement, or failure to acquire more sophisticated social-communication skills as expected rather than an identifiable loss of actual skills (e.g., Brian et al. 2014, Ozonoff et al. 2010).”

    From Recent Advances in Autism Research as Reflected in DSM-5 Criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder (2015) · cites this paper as Ozonoff et al. 2010

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Ozonoff, S., Iosif, A.-M., Baguio, F., Cook, I. C., Hill, M. M., Hutman, T., Rogers, S. J., Rozga, A., Sangha, S., Sigman, M., Steinfeld, M. B., & Young, G. S.
Affiliations
  • University of California, Davis (US)
  • University of California, Los Angeles (US)
Corresponding author
Ozonoff, Sally
ORCID
Venue
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2010-03
Volume
49
Issue
3
Pages
256-266.e2
ISSN
0890-8567 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.jaac.2009.11.009
PMC
PMC2923050
OpenAlex
W1976748406
Cited by
1,011
References
9
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 44 · 2024: 44 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 74 · 2021: 77 · 2020: 116 · 2019: 70 · 2018: 74 · 2017: 76 · 2016: 56 · 2015: 79 · 2014: 59 · 2013: 72 · 2012: 57
FWCI
35.11
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations
  • Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH068398, MH068172, U54MH068172)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Child Nutrition and Feeding Issues
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
Keywords
autism spectrum disorder, social smiling, social communication development, regression analysis, developmental trajectories, parent report, clinical screening, infants
MeSH terms
Autistic Disorder, Child, Child Development Disorders, Pervasive, Child, Preschool, Communication, Female, Humans, Infant, Language Development Disorders, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Motor Skills, Personality Assessment, Prospective Studies, Regression, Psychology, Retrospective Studies, Social Behavior, Age of Onset, Early Diagnosis

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review