Early trajectories of motor skills in infant siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder.
Motor paths in the first three years flag later language and autism issues in ASD siblings.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Sosnowski et al. (2022) tracked how baby brothers and sisters of autistic kids move and grow. They watched these babies from birth to age three.
The team used math models to map each child's path for fine and gross motor skills. They then linked these paths to later language and autism signs.
What they found
Babies who took slower or uneven motor paths were more likely to have language delays and higher autism traits at three.
Both fine and gross motor patterns mattered. The link held for talking and for understanding words.
How this fits with other research
Garrido et al. (2017) already showed, across many studies, that ASD siblings move and talk a bit behind typical kids. W et al. now show the shape of that slow-down over time.
Redquest et al. (2021) found that fine motor lags at 9-14 months predict later autism odds. W et al. widen the window, showing the full three-year path matters.
Hilton et al. (2012) saw big motor problems only in kids already diagnosed, not in their unaffected siblings. W et al. reveal early hints of these same problems in babies who are not yet diagnosed, filling the gap.
Why it matters
You can watch how an ASD sibling stacks blocks, crawls, or walks before the first birthday. If the child's path looks flat or bumpy, add extra motor and language checks. Early action keeps both skills moving forward.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Delays in motor development are not considered a core feature of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Yet, recent studies of infant siblings of children with ASD suggest that early delays in motor skills may be associated with later delays in developmental areas considered to be core features of an ASD diagnosis. While these studies demonstrate the longitudinal association between core features and motor delays observed at single time points, there is considerable interest in studying the trajectories of motor development over the first 3 years of life. To accomplish this, we investigated early trajectories of motor development in a cohort of 499 infant siblings of children with ASD and 176 children with no family history of ASD. Data for the current study were drawn from the prospective, multi-site, Canadian Infant Sibling Study. We evaluated trajectories of fine and gross motor development over the first 3 years using group-based trajectory modeling. Our results show that membership for both fine and gross motor trajectory groups was related to expressive language skills, receptive language skills, ASD symptom severity scores, and diagnostic classification at age 3. These results provide evidence that the trajectory of a child's early motor development may have important prognostic implications in ASD.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2022 · doi:10.1002/aur.2641