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Joint Attention Initiation With and Without Positive Affect: Risk Group Differences and Associations with ASD Symptoms

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Abstract

Infants at risk for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may have difficulty integrating smiles into initiating joint attention (IJA) bids. A specific IJA pattern, anticipatory smiling, may communicate preexisting positive affect when an infant smiles at an object and then turns the smile toward the social partner. We compared the development of anticipatory smiling at 8, 10, and 12 months in infant siblings of children with ASD (high-risk siblings) and without ASD (low-risk siblings). High-risk siblings produced less anticipatory smiling than low-risk siblings, suggesting early differences in communicating preexisting positive affect. While early anticipatory smiling distinguished the risk groups, IJA not accompanied by smiling best predicted later severity of ASD-related behavioral characteristics among high-risk siblings. High-risk infants appear to show lower levels of motivation to share positive affect with others. However, facility with initiating joint attention in the absence of a clear index of positive affective motivation appears to be central to the prediction of ASD symptoms.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the families who have participated in our study. This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01 HD047417& R01 HD057284), the Marino Autism Research Institute (MARI), the National Science Foundation (0808767 & 1052736), National Institute of General Medical Sciences (1R01GM105004), and Autism Speaks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Miami, 5665 Ponce de Leon Blvd, Coral Gables, FL, 33146, USA

    Devon N. Gangi

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Washington Autism Center, Seattle, WA, USA

    Lisa V. Ibañez

  3. Departments of Psychology, Pediatrics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA

    Daniel S. Messinger

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  1. Devon N. Gangi
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  2. Lisa V. Ibañez
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  3. Daniel S. Messinger
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Correspondence to Devon N. Gangi.

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Gangi, D.N., Ibañez, L.V. & Messinger, D.S. Joint Attention Initiation With and Without Positive Affect: Risk Group Differences and Associations with ASD Symptoms. J Autism Dev Disord 44, 1414–1424 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-2002-9

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