title: 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.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
authors.affiliation: University of Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maestro
authors.forename: Filippo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Muratori
authors.forename: Maria Cristina
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Cavallaro
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pecini
authors.forename: Alessia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cesari
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Paziente
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Stern
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Golse
authors.forename: Francisco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Palacio-Espasa
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001290:Attitude; D001321:Autistic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012938:Social Perception