Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

, Volume 44, Issue 1, pp 154–167 | Cite as

Early Language Profiles in Infants at High-Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders

  • Kristelle Hudry
  • Susie Chandler
  • Rachael Bedford
  • Greg Pasco
  • Teodora Gliga
  • Mayada Elsabbagh
  • Mark H. Johnson
  • Tony Charman
Original Paper
First Online:

Abstract

Many preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) present relative lack of receptive advantage over concurrent expressive language. Such profile emergence was investigated longitudinally in 54 infants at high-risk (HR) for ASD and 50 low-risk controls, with three language measures taken across four visits (around 7, 14, 24, 38 months). HR infants presented three outcome subgroups: ASD, other atypicality, and typical development. Reduced receptive vocabulary advantage was observed in HR infants by 14 months, but was maintained to 24 months only in ASD/other atypicality outcome subgroups while typically-developing HR infants regained a more normative profile. Few group differences appeared on a direct assessment of language and parent-reported functional communication. Processes of early development toward ASD outcome and in intermediate phenotypes are discussed.

Keywords

Autism spectrum disorder Broader autism phenotype High-risk siblings Receptive language Expressive language Language profiles 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the BASIS families for their participation in this study, and Carina de Klerk, Kathryn Frame, Besterah Kultu, and Emma Tait for their research assistance. Many thanks also to three anonymous reviewers for their comments on a previous version of this manuscript. The research is supported by The UK Medical Research Council (G0701484) to M. H. Johnson, the BASIS funding consortium led by Autistica (www.basisnetwork.org) and a grant from Autism Speaks (1292). Further support for some authors is from COST action BM1004.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  • Kristelle Hudry
    • 1
  • Susie Chandler
    • 2
  • Rachael Bedford
    • 5
  • Greg Pasco
    • 2
  • Teodora Gliga
    • 3
  • Mayada Elsabbagh
    • 3
    • 4
  • Mark H. Johnson
    • 3
  • Tony Charman
    • 2
  1. 1.Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre, School of Psychological ScienceLa Trobe UniversityMelbourneAustralia
  2. 2.Department of Psychology, Institute of PsychiatryKing’s College LondonLondonUK
  3. 3.Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, BirkbeckUniversity of LondonLondonUK
  4. 4.Department of PsychiatryMcGill UniversityMontrealCanada
  5. 5.Department of Biostatistics, Institute of PsychiatryKing’s College LondonLondonUK

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