How young children treat objects and people: an empirical study of the first year of life in autism

Abstract

Objective: To figure out features of autism before the age of one and to explore the pathways of early social and nonsocial attention in autism through home movies.

Method: Home movies of 15 children later diagnosed with autism, are compared with home movies of 13 typical children. The films of the two groups have been mixed and rated by blind observers through a Grid composed of social and nonsocial item and applied to two age ranges: 0-6 months (T1) and 7-12 months (T2). Two MANOVAs, an ANOVA and discriminant analyses were applied.

Results: Significant differences between the two groups were found only for the item in the Social area at T1 but not at T2, when groups did not differ in either social or nonsocial areas. At T2 children with autism had significantly higher scores in the nonsocial area while normal children did not show significant differences between areas. Discriminant analyses revealed that social attention can distinguish the two groups at T1 but not at T2.

Conclusions: The fundamental impairment of joint attention in autism could be considered a consequence of the early atypical developmental gap and of a later disconnection between attention to people and objects. Abnormal developmental trajectories for social and nonsocial attention could help us in the future to understand relationships between adaptive capacities and symptoms, and set the stage for appropriate early screening instruments.