Can early motor training help babies at risk for autism?
Infants at high risk for autism showed increased grasping and improved motor skills after using velcro 'sticky mittens' for two weeks.
Source
Scaffolded reaching experiences encourage grasping activity in infants at high risk for autism
What they did
The researchers trained 17 three-month-old infants at high risk for autism using Velcro 'sticky mittens' for 10 minutes daily over two weeks. This active motor training, implemented by parents, was designed to facilitate early reaching and grasping. The researchers compared these infants to 72 low-risk infants from previous studies who underwent various training protocols. They measured infants' grasping behaviors, parent-reported motor skills, and visual preference for faces.
What they found
Following the two-week training, high-risk infants showed a significant increase in grasping duration, matching the performance of low-risk infants who received the same active training. Parents also reported significant improvements in gross, fine, and perception-action motor skills. However, unlike low-risk infants, the high-risk infants did not show a statistically significant visual preference for faces after training.
The limits
What it doesn't show
This study does not prove that early motor training can prevent or treat autism spectrum disorder. The design lacked a control group of high-risk infants who did not receive active training, making it hard to completely rule out natural developmental maturation or parental rating bias. Additionally, slight differences in experimental setups, such as screen sizes for the eye-tracking task, limit direct comparisons between high-risk and low-risk groups.
Key terms
- High-Risk (HR) Infants
- Infants who have an older biological sibling diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, putting them at higher risk for developing ASD.
- Sticky Mittens
- Velcro-covered mittens designed to help infants easily grasp Velcro-covered toys, facilitating early motor exploration.
- Active Training (AT)
- A motor intervention where infants wear sticky mittens and are actively encouraged by parents to reach for and interact with toys.
- Passive Training (PT)
- A control condition where infants wear non-sticky mittens while parents touch toys to their hands, providing sensory feedback without independent movement.
- Early Motor Questionnaire (EMQ)
- A parent-report tool used to assess infant motor development across gross, fine, and perception-action domains.
- Face Preference Score
- A metric calculated using eye-tracking data that compares the amount of time an infant spends looking at a human face versus a toy.
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In this study, how are high-risk (HR) infants defined?
Common questions
Why does early motor training affect social skills like looking at faces?
Early motor skills, like grasping, allow infants to interact with objects and eventually share them with others, creating opportunities for social interactions and joint attention.
What are 'sticky mittens' and how do they work?
They are mittens covered in Velcro. When infants swipe at Velcro-covered toys, the toys stick to their hands, allowing them to experience successful grasping before they have developed fine motor coordination.
Why did the researchers study infants with older siblings with autism?
These infants are considered at high genetic risk for autism. Studying them early allows researchers to find early developmental differences and test early interventions before diagnostic symptoms fully appear.
Did the training help high-risk infants look at faces more?
Although there was a slight trend toward looking at faces, the increase in face preference for high-risk infants did not reach statistical significance, unlike the low-risk infants who showed a strong preference.
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