TABLE 1 Social, communication, and other developmental disruptions reported before 24 months of age in retrospective and prospective studies of children later diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.
From the following article:
Diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders in the first 3 years of life
Rebecca J Landa
BACK TO ARTICLE| Behavioral characteristic | Disruptions first reported at 6–12 months | Disruptions first reported at 9–14 months | Disruptions first reported at 20–24 months |
|---|---|---|---|
| Social responsiveness | Infrequent look to others' faces or gaze aversion14, 101 Poor eye contact101 | Abnormal orienting to name or others' voice16, 17, 18, 19, 102 Infrequent monitoring of others' gaze35, 103 Infrequent response to others' nonverbal cues of shifted attention35, 104 | Lack of imitation105 Lack of interest in other children39 Infrequent social gaze in response to others' distress105 Brief duration of gaze towards others103 |
| Social initiation | Poor social initiative15 | Infrequent initiation of joint attention through pointing or showing18, 35 Infrequent directing of play acts towards others35 Infrequent initiation of communicative bids for social or regulatory purposes35 | Infrequent seeking to share39 |
| Social–emotional interaction | Absence of facial expression14, 15 Decreased frequency of smiling101 Lack of emotional modulation15 | Infrequent sharing of positive affect35 | Limited range of facial expression39 Infrequent offering of comfort39 |
| Communication and play | Delay in babbling26 Decreased frequency of vocalization101 | Low diversity in consonants produced communicatively35 Infrequent and low variety of conventional gestures20, 35, 107 Delayed receptive and expressive language25 Reduced variety of play acts35 Reduced variety of action sequences in play35 | Failure to integrate gaze with other communication behaviors106 Reduced inventory of words produced35, 66 Abnormal prosody106 |
| Sensory, motor or attention behavior | Abnormal postural control24 Atypical movements24 Low diversity of movements24 Hypotonicity15, 24 Poor motor coordination24, 26 Hypoactivity and passivity, and decreased object exploration15, 24 Abnormal pattern and focus of attention26 | Repetitive and perseverative actions107, 108 Difficulty with attention disengagement16 Abnormalities in arousal or unusual sensory responses14, 16 | Repetitive behaviors and restricted interests106 |