title: Developmental trajectories in siblings of children with autism: cognition and language from 4 months to 7 years.
abstract: We compared the cognitive and language development at 4, 14, 24, 36, 54 months, and 7 years of siblings of children with autism (SIBS-A) to that of siblings of children with typical development (SIBS-TD) using growth curve analyses. At 7 years, 40% of the SIBS-A, compared to 16% of SIBS-TD, were identified with cognitive, language and/or academic difficulties, identified using direct tests and/or parental reports. This sub-group was identified as SIBS-A-broad phenotype (BP). Results indicated that early language scores (14-54 months), but not cognitive scores of SIBS-A-BP and SIBS-A-nonBP were significantly lower compared to the language scores of SIBS-TD, and that the rate of development was also significantly different, thus pinpointing language as a major area of difficulty for SIBS-A during the preschool years.
authors.affiliation: School of Education, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Ifat
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Gamliel
authors.forename: Nurit
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yirmiya
authors.forename: Dena H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Jaffe
authors.forename: Orly
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Manor
authors.forename: Marian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sigman