Social orienting and initiated joint attention behaviors in 9 to 12 month old children with autism spectrum disorder: A family home movies study.
Babies later diagnosed with autism look at faces as much as peers at 9–12 months but already fail to respond to their name and initiate joint attention, so screen these skills early.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Palomo et al. (2022) watched old home movies of babies who were later diagnosed with autism. They coded how often each baby looked at faces, turned when someone said the baby's name, and pointed or showed toys to others. The babies were 9 to 12 months old. The team compared these babies with typical babies filmed at the same ages.
What they found
The future autism group did not look at faces any less than the typical group. They did turn less when their name was called and pointed or showed toys less often. These gaps showed up before the first birthday. The findings go against the idea that babies with autism avoid looking at people.
How this fits with other research
Merin et al. (2007) saw less eye gaze at 6 months in high-risk babies during a lab Still-Face task. Rubén finds no face-looking gap at 9–12 months. The clash is likely about age and setting: younger babies in a structured lab show the drop, while older babies filmed at home do not.
Geurts et al. (2008) also used home videos and saw gaze and joint-attention problems by 6–12 months. Rubén confirms those early joint-attention deficits with newer, larger home-movie coding.
Cornew et al. (2012) extended the picture to 18 months, showing the same babies later ask caregivers for help more slowly during play. The trouble starts before one year and ripples forward.
Why it matters
You can screen before 12 months without waiting for lost words. Watch how often a baby turns to his name or shows you a toy; these acts predict later autism better than how much he looks at you. Add name-response and showing trials to your 9-12 month assessments. Early gaps give you a clear, teachable target for caregiver coaching and can guide referral timing.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
According to the Social Motivation model children with autism show deficits in social orienting (looking at faces and responding to name) at the end of their first year of life. In this model, those deficits are both the earliest behavioral consequences of an alteration in the dopamine reward system balance and the foundation of the social impairments that characterize this neurodevelopmental disorder. The current study tests two of the main predictions of this model: that social orienting deficits are the first behavioral manifestation of autism, and that they are developmentally related to joint attention deficits. We retrospectively analyzed family home movies of 9- to 12-month-old infants, 29 of whom were later diagnosed with autism and 16 of whom were typically developing. After confirming that the videotapes of both groups were similar in content of the scenes recorded (contexts, type of social activity, etc.), we compared their social orienting (social gaze and responding to name) and joint attention behaviors (gaze alternation and gestures). No significant differences between groups were found in looking at faces, but the group with autism showed deficits in responding to name and initiations of joint attention (IJA). Looking at people was not significantly correlated with IJA behaviors, but response to name was. The lack of group differences in looking at faces between 9 and 12 months, and the existence of IJA difficulties in the ASD group without concurrent impairment in looking at faces, do not support predictions of the Social Motivation model. LAY SUMMARY: Various theories have been proposed to explain the emergence of autism symptoms early in life. This study tested two key predictions of the Social Motivation model. Comparing family movies of children 9- to 12-months-old later diagnosed with autism or with typical development, we did not observe difficulties in looking at other people's faces but children with autism responded to name and used gaze and gestures to direct the adult's attention to events of interest less frequently. This absence of difficulties in looking at faces does not fit with what the Social Motivation model of autism predicts and therefore we must develop alternative explanations.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2022 · doi:10.1002/aur.2695