Brief report: early social communication behaviors in the younger siblings of children with autism.
Baby brothers and sisters of children with autism already show quieter social-communication signals on the ESCS.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team watched baby brothers and sisters of kids with autism. They used the Early Social Communication Scales, or ESCS for short.
The babies sat on mom’s lap while an adult showed toys, pointed, and tried to get the baby to look back and forth.
They scored how often each baby pointed, shared a smile, or followed someone’s gaze. Then they compared these babies to typically developing toddlers.
What they found
Three out of four ESCS scores were lower in the autism-sibling group. Their actions looked more like the patterns seen in children already diagnosed with autism.
Some babies still scored in the typical range, so the results were not all bad news.
How this fits with other research
Rutherford et al. (2007) saw the same lags one year later. They added tiny differences in smiling and joint attention, backing up the 2005 picture.
Garrido et al. (2017) pooled many studies and found medium-sized language delays in these siblings from 12 to 36 months. Their meta-analysis covers the ESCS language items, so the 2005 data sit inside their bigger trend.
Meier et al. (2012) followed the same kind of siblings to age five. Natural conversation showed lasting social gaps that standard language tests missed. Together the papers trace a line: early ESCS dips turn into later real-life social hiccups.
Why it matters
If you work with families who already have one child with autism, run the ESCS or a short joint-attention probe before the first birthday. Low scores give you an early green light for parent-coaching programs that boost pointing, showing, and turn-taking.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The early social and communicative development of very young siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is the focus of the current study. Three groups of children were included: (1) young children diagnosed with ASD, (2) younger siblings in families with a somewhat older child with ASD, and (3) young typically developing children. All children participated in a videotaped, structured interactional procedure called the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS; [Mundy & Hogan, 1996, A Preliminary Manual for the Abridged Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS) Unpublished manual, University of Miami]). Very young siblings were compared to young children with a diagnosed autism spectrum disorder and to a group of young typically developing children. Results indicated that, on three of four of the ESCS subscales, the social communicative behaviors of the younger siblings differed from those of the typically developing children but not from the behaviors displayed by the ASD group. Genetic vulnerability for ASD among siblings and characteristics of family interaction may explain the level of impairment observed in the very young siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2005 · doi:10.1007/s10803-005-0009-6