title: Behavioral development and sociodemographics of infants and young children at higher and lower risk for autism spectrum disorders.
abstract: Identification of early signs of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) could lead to earlier diagnosis and intervention. This cross-sectional study used the Parent Observation of Early Markers Scale (POEMS, Feldman et al. in J Autism Dev Disord 42:13-12, 2012) to identify early signs of ASD in 69 ASD high-risk (older sibling diagnosed with ASD) and 69 sex and aged-matched ASD low-risk second-born or later infants (no family history of ASD) between 6 and 36 months of age. Family sociodemographic comparisons were also made between the risk groups. The high-risk children had significantly more elevated POEMS items than the low-risk children at 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36 months of age, even when the children subsequently diagnosed with ASD were removed from the analyses. Families of the high-risk group had older parents, lower family income and fewer mothers working out of the home than the low-risk group. These sociodemographic variables were not significantly correlated with POEMS scores. The results suggest that high-risk infants may show signs of the broader ASD phenotype as early as 12 months of age that may be unrelated to observed sociodemographic family differences.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Applied Disability Studies, Brock University, 500 Glenridge Ave., St. Catharines, ON, L2S 3A1, Canada, mfeldman@brocku.ca.
authors.forename: Maurice A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Feldman
authors.forename: Amanda M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Hendry
authors.forename: Rebecca A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hudson
authors.forename: Xudong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
mesh_terms: D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005192:Family Health; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D035781:Siblings / Q000523:psychology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors