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1. A Six‐Minute Measure of Vocalizations in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder

   https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2293  

   Tenenbaum, Elena J. ; Carpenter, Kimberly L. H. ; Sabatos‐DeVito, Maura ; Hashemi, Jordan ; Vermeer, Saritha ; Sapiro, Guillermo ; Dawson, Geraldine ( March 2020 , Autism Research)

   To improve early identification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we need objective, reliable, and accessible measures. To that end, a previous study demonstrated that a tablet‐based application (app) that assessed several autism risk behaviors distinguished between toddlers with ASD and non‐ASD toddlers. Using vocal data collected during this study, we investigated whether vocalizations uttered during administration of this app can distinguish among toddlers aged 16–31 months with typical development (TD), language or developmental delay (DLD), and ASD. Participant's visual and vocal responses were recorded using the camera and microphone in a tablet while toddlers watched movies designed to elicit behaviors associated with risk for ASD. Vocalizations were then coded offline. Results showed that (a) children with ASD and DLD were less likely to produce words during app administration than TD participants; (b) the ratio of syllabic vocalizations to all vocalizations was higher among TD than ASD or DLD participants; and (c) the rates of nonsyllabic vocalizations were higher in the ASD group than in either the TD or DLD groups. Those producing more nonsyllabic vocalizations were 24 times more likely to be diagnosed with ASD. These results lend support to previous findings that early vocalizations might be useful in identifying risk for ASD in toddlers and demonstrate the feasibility of using a scalable tablet‐based app for assessing vocalizations in the context of a routine pediatric visit.

   Although parents often report symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in infancy, we are not yet reliably diagnosing ASD until much later in development. A previous study tested a tablet‐based application (app) that recorded behaviors we know are associated with ASD to help identify children at risk for the disorder. Here we measured how children vocalize while they watched the movies presented on the tablet. Children with ASD were less likely to produce words, less likely to produce speechlike sounds, and more likely to produce atypical sounds while watching these movies. These measures, combined with other behaviors measured by the app, might help identify which children should be evaluated for ASD.Autism Res2020, 13: 1373–1382. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

    

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2. Transient states of network connectivity are atypical in autism: A dynamic functional connectivity study

   https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24529  

   Mash, Lisa E. ; Linke, Annika C. ; Olson, Lindsay A. ; Fishman, Inna ; Liu, Thomas T. ; Müller, Ralph‐Axel ( January 2019 , Human Brain Mapping)

   There is ample evidence of atypical functional connectivity (FC) in autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). However, transient relationships between neural networks cannot be captured by conventional static FC analyses. Dynamic FC (dFC) approaches have been used to identify repeating, transient connectivity patterns (“states”), revealing spatiotemporal network properties not observable in static FC. Recent studies have found atypical dFC in ASDs, but questions remain about the nature of group differences in transient connectivity, and the degree to which states persist or change over time. This study aimed to: (a) describe and relate static and dynamic FC in typical development and ASDs, (b) describe group differences in transient states and compare them with static FC patterns, and (c) examine temporal stability and flexibility between identified states. Resting‐state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected from 62 ASD and 57 typically developing (TD) children and adolescents. Whole‐brain, data‐driven regions of interest were derived from group independent component analysis. Sliding window analysis and k‐means clustering were used to explore dFC and identify transient states. Across all regions, static overconnnectivity and increased variability over time in ASDs predominated. Furthermore, significant patterns of group differences emerged in two transient states that were not observed in the static FC matrix, with group differences in one state primarily involving sensory and motor networks, and in the other involving higher‐order cognition networks. Default mode network segregation was significantly reduced in ASDs in both states. Results highlight that dynamic approaches may reveal more nuanced transient patterns of atypical FC in ASDs.

    

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3. The role of vision in the acquisition of words: Vocabulary development in blind toddlers

   https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13475  

   Campbell, Erin ; Casillas, Robyn ; Bergelson, Elika ( January 2024 , Developmental Science)

   What is vision's role in driving early word production? To answer this, we assessed parent‐report vocabulary questionnaires administered to congenitally blind children (N = 40, Mean age = 24 months [R: 7–57 months]) and compared the size and contents of their productive vocabulary to those of a large normative sample of sighted children (N = 6574). We found that on average, blind children showed a roughly half‐year vocabulary delay relative to sighted children, amid considerable variability. However, the content of blind and sighted children's vocabulary was statistically indistinguishable in word length, part of speech, semantic category, concreteness, interactiveness, and perceptual modality. At a finer‐grained level, we also found that words’ perceptual properties intersect with children's perceptual abilities. Our findings suggest that while an absence of visual input may initially make vocabulary development more difficult, the content of the early productive vocabulary is largely resilient to differences in perceptual access.

   Infants and toddlers born blind (with no other diagnoses) show a 7.5 month productive vocabulary delay on average, with wide variability.

   Across the studied age range (7–57 months), vocabulary delays widened with age.

   Blind and sighted children's early vocabularies contain similar distributions of word lengths, parts of speech, semantic categories, and perceptual modalities.

   Blind children (but not sighted children) were more likely to say visual words which could also be experienced through other senses.

    

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4. The Development of Object Construction From Infancy Through Toddlerhood

   https://doi.org/10.1111/infa.12284  

   Marcinowski, Emily C. ; Nelson, Eliza ; Campbell, Julie M. ; Michel, George F. ( March 2019 , Infancy)

   Early in development, children explore and combine objects in increasingly complex ways. One manual skill, object construction, represents a major shift in how objects are explored relative to other objects. Despite recent connections with cognitive functioning such as spatial skills, the development of object construction ability has rarely been studied and its trajectory has not been adequately described. The purpose of this study was to describe the development of three types of object construction (stacking, nesting, and affixing) across 5 monthly infant visits and 7 monthly toddler visits using a longitudinal design and a large sample size. Infants (10–14 months,n = 131) and toddlers drawn from the infant sample (18–24 months,n = 65) were given sets of age‐appropriate toys each of which elicited at least one type of constructive play. We described success at different construction tasks and identified trends for construction skill for infant and toddler development using multilevel modeling. We found that each of the three construction actions developed in unique ways across the 10‐ to 24‐month period. Infant construction skill predicted the development of toddler skill, but toddler construction skill diverged from infant trajectories. We discuss the role of combination strategies in the development of object construction skill and how object construction could be related to other domains of development.

    

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5. Neural responses to linguistic stimuli in children with and without autism spectrum disorder

   https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.13721  

   Finch, Kayla H. ; Tager‐Flusberg, Helen ; Nelson, Charles A. ( October 2017 , European Journal of Neuroscience)

   Atypical neural responses to language have been found in toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and in their unaffected siblings. However, given that language difficulties are often seen in these children, it is difficult to interpret whether these neural differences are a result of the diagnosis ofASDor impairments in their language abilities. In this study, we recorded event‐related potentials (ERPs) from four groups of 36‐month‐olds: low‐risk control (LRC), high risk forASDdefined as having an older sibling withASD(HRA) but who do not haveASDor milder autism‐like symptoms (HRA‐Typ),HRAchildren who do not haveASDbut exhibit milder autism‐like symptoms (HRA‐Atyp) andHRAchildren diagnosed withASD(ASD). Children listened to words expected to be acquired early (e.g. ball) and words expected to be acquired late (e.g. calf).ERPs were analysed over time windows sensitive to word processing as well as frontal and temporo‐parietal sites over the left and right hemispheres. When controlling for language abilities, there were group differences within the temporo‐parietal sites. Specifically, theHRA‐Atyp group showed a different timed response to late words compared to theASDandLRCgroups. In addition, we found a relation between neural responses in the left frontal sites andASDseverity. Our results suggest that both language abilities andASDdiagnoses are important to consider when interpreting neural differences in lexical processing.

    

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