Early Social Attention Impairments in Autism: Social Orienting, Joint Attention, and Attention to Distress.

TLDR

The study examined how impairments in social orienting, joint attention, and distress attention in young children with autism relate to language ability. Researchers compared 72 ASD children, 34 developmentally delayed peers, and 39 typically developing children, matched on mental age, on social orienting, joint attention, and distress attention. Children with autism performed worse than comparison groups on all social attention measures; joint attention and social orienting together best distinguished ASD, joint attention most strongly predicted language ability, and distress and orienting were indirectly related to language through joint attention, underscoring early intervention targets.

Abstract

This study investigated social attention impairments in autism (social orienting, joint attention, and attention to another's distress) and their relations to language ability. Three- to four-year-old children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 72), 3- to 4-year-old developmentally delayed children (n = 34), and 12- to 46-month-old typically developing children (n = 39), matched on mental age, were compared on measures of social orienting, joint attention, and attention to another's distress. Children with autism performed significantly worse than the comparison groups in all of these domains. Combined impairments in joint attention and social orienting were found to best distinguish young children with ASD from those without ASD. Structural equation modeling indicated that joint attention was the best predictor of concurrent language ability. Social orienting and attention to distress were indirectly related to language through their relations with joint attention. These results help to clarify the nature of social attention impairments in autism, offer clues to developmental mechanisms, and suggest targets for early intervention.