Early thinking and motor skills in babies at risk for autism
Babies with a family history of autism show slower development in early thinking skills, such as holding information in mind and self-control, during early childhood.
Source
Emerging Executive Functioning and Motor Development in Infants at High and Low Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder
What they did
Researchers tracked 186 high-risk infants and 76 low-risk infants at 12 and 24 months of age. They evaluated the infants' early executive functions, specifically working memory and response inhibition, using an object-hiding game called the A-not-B task. The researchers also measured the infants' fine and gross motor skills to examine how physical development relates to early thinking skills.
What they found
At 12 months, there were no significant differences in working memory or self-control among the groups. However, by 24 months, both high-risk infants who developed autism and those who did not performed significantly worse on these cognitive tasks than low-risk infants. Additionally, the study found that motor skills were linked to these cognitive abilities, but the relationship differed by group and age, with fine motor skills predicting worse self-control at 12 months specifically for infants who later developed autism.
The limits
What it doesn't show
This study cannot prove that early cognitive or motor differences cause autism, as the relationships observed are purely correlational. Because final diagnoses were established when infants were 24 months old, the study may have misclassified some children who would go on to receive an autism diagnosis at older ages. Additionally, the researchers relied on a hand-based task to measure early thinking skills, which might not capture the full range of an infant's cognitive abilities. Finally, a significant portion of infants failed to complete the task due to testing issues, limiting the completeness of the data.
Key terms
- Executive Functioning (EF)
- A set of mental processes that include attention, memory, self-control, and planning, which help people manage their daily lives and achieve goals.
- Working Memory
- The cognitive system responsible for temporarily holding and manipulating information in our minds.
- Response Inhibition
- The ability to suppress or stop a strong, automatic, or impulsive physical or mental response in favor of a more appropriate behavior.
- High-Risk (HR) Siblings
- In this study, infants who have an older biological sibling diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, putting them at a higher statistical risk of developing autism.
- A-not-B Task
- A classic developmental psychology experiment where an object is hidden under container A, retrieved by the child, and then hidden under container B to test their working memory and self-control.
- Fine Motor Skills
- The coordination of small muscle movements, usually involving the hands and fingers, in coordination with the eyes.
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Quiz yourself
Around what age do the core behavioral features of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) typically appear to emerge?
Common questions
Why did the researchers study siblings of children with autism?
Younger siblings of children with autism have a much higher statistical chance of being diagnosed with autism themselves compared to the general population. Studying this high-risk group longitudinally allows researchers to observe the very earliest signs of the condition before clear symptoms fully emerge.
Why did some high-risk infants who did not develop autism still show lower cognitive scores?
The researchers suggest that executive functioning difficulties might represent a shared genetic vulnerability of autism. Even if a high-risk sibling does not meet the full diagnostic criteria for autism, they may still inherit some genetic tendencies that affect their cognitive development.
What was the surprising finding about motor skills at 12 months of age?
At 12 months, infants who later developed autism actually performed better on the cognitive hiding task if they had poorer fine motor skills. The authors speculate this unusual negative relationship might be linked to early autistic preferences for playing with objects combined with subtle coordination issues, but they note that further research is needed to replicate this finding.
How does physical motor development relate to cognitive thinking skills?
Early physical actions, like reaching for toys or learning to walk, require planning and attention. Because these actions engage overlapping brain networks, a child's physical exploration of their environment is closely intertwined with the development of their mental abilities.
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