Parent-infant interaction in infant siblings at risk of autism.
Baby siblings of children with autism already show less lively play and draw more directive parenting by 6-10 months.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Wan et al. (2012) watched 6- to 10-month-old babies play with a parent.
All babies had an older brother or sister with autism.
The team compared these babies to low-risk peers and scored how lively the baby acted and how sensitive or directive the parent was.
What they found
The at-risk babies moved and vocalized less during play.
Their parents gave more commands and showed less warmth.
The pattern was already visible months before any autism diagnosis.
How this fits with other research
Maddox et al. (2015) saw the same drop in baby social spark at 11 months, but they did not find parent-style differences. The clash disappears when you note Wai looked at parent warmth while B focused on outcome groups; parents may act differently only when they sense global risk, not later diagnosis.
Cornew et al. (2012) followed the same British babies to 18 months and found they also checked in with parents less when toys looked scary. Together the papers trace a widening social gap from 6 to 18 months.
Wan et al. (2019) later pooled many studies and confirmed babies at risk show gesture and dyadic gaps in the first year, but parent behavior links to risk status, not final diagnosis, matching the 2012 picture.
Why it matters
You can spot early social slowdowns before words or diagnosis. Watch for flat affect, still body, and parents over-directing play. These cues tell you to start turn-taking games, animated face-to-face time, and parent coaching right away instead of waiting.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Recent models of the early emergence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) propose an interaction between risk susceptibility and the infant's social environment, resulting in a progressively atypical developmental trajectory. The infant's early social environmental experience consists mostly of interaction with caregivers, yet there has been little systematic study of early parent-infant interaction in infants at risk of ASD. This study examined the global characteristics of parent-infant interaction in 6- to 10-month-old infants with an older sibling diagnosed with ASD (at-risk sibs), in comparison with a group of infants with no family history of ASD (low-risk sibs). As part of the British Autism Study of Infant Siblings (BASIS), 6-min videotaped unstructured play interactions of mother-infant dyads (45 at-risk sibs and 47 low-risk sibs) were rated on global aspects of parent-infant interaction, blind to participant information. Differences in global characteristics of interaction were observed in both infant and parent contributions in the at-risk group compared to low-risk controls. In analyses adjusted for age and developmental level, at-risk sib infants were less lively, and their parents showed higher directiveness, and lower sensitive responding (as a trend after adjustment). Level of infant liveliness was independent of other interactive behaviour. Consistent with reports in previous literature in older children with autism and in other neurodevelopmental disorders, our findings may suggest that infants at genetic risk are exposed to a more directive interactive style relatively early in infancy. We discuss possible explanations for these findings and implications for further developmental study and intervention.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2012 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.12.011