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Background: Children with neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often experience sleep disturbances, but little is known about when these sleep differences emerge and how they relate to later development. Methods: We used a prospective longitudinal design in infants with a family history of ASD and/or ADHD to examine infant sleep and its relation to trajectories of attention and later neurodevelopmental disorders. We formed factors of Day and Night Sleep from parent‐reported measures (including day/night sleep duration, number of naps in the day, frequency of night awakenings and sleep onset problems). We examined sleep in 164 infants at 5‐, 10‐ and 14‐months with/without a first‐degree relative with ASD and/or ADHD who underwent a consensus clinical assessment for ASD at age 3. Results: By 14‐months, infants with a first‐degree relative with ASD (but not ADHD) showed lower Night Sleep scores than infants with no family history of ASD; lower Night Sleep scores in infancy were also associated with a later ASD diagnosis, decreased cognitive ability, increased ASD symptomatology at 3‐years, and developing social attention (e.g., looking to faces). We found no such effects with Day Sleep. Conclusions: Sleep disturbances may be apparent at night from 14‐months in infants with a family history of ASD and also those with later ASD, but were not associated with a family history of ADHD. Infant sleep disturbances were also linked to later dimensional variation in cognitive and social skills across the cohort. Night Sleep and Social Attention were interrelated over the first 2 years of life, suggesting that this may be one mechanism through which sleep quality influences neurodevelopment. Interventions targeted towards supporting families with their infant's sleep problems may be useful in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Due to familial liability, siblings of children with ASD exhibit elevated risk for language delays. The processes contributing to language delays in this population remain unclear. Methods: Considering well‐established links between attention to dynamic audiovisual cues inherent in a speaker's face and speech processing, we investigated if attention to a speaker's face and mouth differs in 12‐month‐old infants at high familial risk for ASD but without ASD diagnosis (hr‐sib; n = 91) and in infants at low familial risk (lr‐sib; n = 62) for ASD and whether attention at 12 months predicts language outcomes at 18 months. Results: At 12 months, hr‐sib and lr‐sib infants did not differ in attention to face (p =.14), mouth preference (p =.30), or in receptive and expressive language scores (p =.36, p =.33). At 18 months, the hr‐sib infants had lower receptive (p =.01) but not expressive (p =.84) language scores than the lr‐sib infants. In the lr‐sib infants, greater attention to the face (p =.022) and a mouth preference (p =.025) contributed to better language outcomes at 18 months. In the hr‐sib infants, neither attention to the face nor a mouth preference was associated with language outcomes at 18 months. Conclusions: Unlike low‐risk infants, high‐risk infants do not appear to benefit from audiovisual prosodic and speech cues in the service of language acquisition despite intact attention to these cues. We propose that impaired processing of audiovisual cues may constitute the link between genetic risk factors and poor language outcomes observed across the autism risk spectrum and may represent a promising endophenotype in autism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Humans are ubiquitously exposed to air pollutants including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). Although most studies of prenatal exposures have focused on psychopathology in childhood or adolescence, the effects of air pollutants on early emerging individual differences in reactivity and regulation are of growing concern. Our study is the first to report effects of prenatal exposure to PAH and maternal stress on infant reactivity and regulation. Methods: Participants included 153 infants (74 girls and 79 boys). Prenatal exposure to PAH was measured via personal air monitoring during the third trimester of pregnancy. Maternal perceived stress was measured via self‐report. We assessed infant orienting/regulation (OR), surgency (SE), and negative affectivity (NA) at 4 months using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire. We measured infant socioemotional outcomes at 12 months using the Brief Infant‐Toddler Social & Emotional Assessment Questionnaire. Results: Infants with higher prenatal PAH exposure and of mothers with higher stress had lower OR at 4 months, which predicted lower competence at 12 months. Infants with higher prenatal PAH exposure had lower SE at 4 months, which predicted more behavioral problems at 12 months. Prenatal exposure to PAH had no effects on infant NA at 4 months, although NA was associated with greater behavioral problems at 12 months. Conclusions: Infant reactivity and regulation, as early makers of child psychopathology, can facilitate timely and targeted screening and possibly prevention of disorders caused, in part, by environmental pollution. A multifaceted approach to improve environmental quality and reduce psychosocial stress is necessary to improve the developmental outcomes of children and most specially children from disadvantaged communities that disproportionately experience these environmental exposures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Uncovering the neural mechanisms that underlie symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) requires studying brain development prior to the emergence of behavioural difficulties. One new approach to this is prospective studies of infants with an elevated likelihood of developing ADHD. Methods: We used a prospective design to examine an oscillatory electroencephalography profile that has been widely studied in both children and adults with ADHD – the balance between lower and higher frequencies operationalised as the theta–beta ratio (TBR). In the present study, we examined TBR in 136 10‐month‐old infants (72 male and 64 female) with/without an elevated likelihood of developing ADHD and/or a comparison disorder (Autism Spectrum Disorder; ASD). Results: Infants with a first‐degree relative with ADHD demonstrated lower TBR than infants without a first‐degree relative with ADHD. Further, lower TBR at 10 months was positively associated with temperament dimensions conceptually related to ADHD at 2 years. TBR was not altered in infants with a family history of ASD. Conclusions: This is the first demonstration that alterations in TBR are present prior to behavioural symptoms of ADHD. However, these alterations manifest differently than those sometimes observed in older children with an ADHD diagnosis. Importantly, altered TBR was not seen in infants at elevated likelihood of developing ASD, suggesting a degree of specificity to ADHD. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that there are brain changes associated with a family history of ADHD observable in the first year of life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Measures based on pupillometry, such as the pupillary light reflex (PLR) and baseline pupil size, reflect physiological responses linked to specific neural circuits that have been implicated as atypical in some psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions. Methods: We investigated the contribution of genetic and environmental factors to the baseline pupil size and the PLR in 510 infant twins assessed at 5 months of age (281 monozygotic and 229 dizygotic pairs), and its associations with common genetic variants associated with neurodevelopmental (autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and mental health (bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia) conditions using genome‐wide polygenic scores (GPSs). Results: Univariate twin modelling showed high heritability at 5 months for both pupil size (h2 =.64) and constriction in response to light (h2 =.62), and bivariate twin modeling indicated substantial independence between the genetic factors influencing each (rG =.38). A statistically significant positive association between infant tonic pupil size and the GPS for schizophrenia was found (β =.15, p =.024), while there was no significant association with the GPS for autism or any other GPSs. Conclusions: This study shows that some pupil measures are highly heritable in early infancy, although substantially independent in their genetic etiologies, and associated with common genetic variants linked to schizophrenia. It illustrates how genetically informed studies of infants may help us understand early physiological responses associated with psychiatric disorders which emerge much later in life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While the cerebellum is traditionally known for its role in sensorimotor control, emerging research shows that particular subregions, such as right Crus I (RCrusI), support language and social processing. Indeed, cerebellar atypicalities are commonly reported in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by socio‐communicative impairments. However, the cerebellum's contribution to early socio‐communicative development remains virtually unknown. Methods: Here, we characterized functional connectivity within cerebro‐cerebellar networks implicated in language/social functions in 9‐month‐old infants who exhibit distinct 3‐year socio‐communicative developmental profiles. We employed a data‐driven clustering approach to stratify our sample of infants at high (n = 82) and low (n = 37) familial risk for ASD into three cohorts—Delayed, Late‐Blooming, and Typical—who showed unique socio‐communicative trajectories. We then compared the cohorts on indices of language and social development. Seed‐based functional connectivity analyses with RCrusI were conducted on infants with fMRI data (n = 66). Cohorts were compared on connectivity estimates from a‐priori regions, selected on the basis of reported coactivation with RCrusI during language/social tasks. Results: The three trajectory‐based cohorts broadly differed in social communication development, as evidenced by robust differences on numerous indices of language and social skills. Importantly, at 9 months, the cohorts showed striking differences in cerebro‐cerebellar circuits implicated in language/social functions. For all regions examined, the Delayed cohort exhibited significantly weaker RCrusI connectivity compared to both the Late‐Blooming and Typical cohorts, with no significant differences between the latter cohorts. Conclusions: We show that hypoconnectivity within distinct cerebro‐cerebellar networks in infancy predicts altered socio‐communicative development before delays overtly manifest, which may be relevant for early detection and intervention. As the cerebellum is implicated in prediction, our findings point to probabilistic learning as a potential intermediary mechanism that may be disrupted in infancy, cascading into alterations in social communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Studies of infants with an elevated likelihood of autism spectrum disorder can identify basic developmental processes that are associated with subsequently emerging clinical symptoms. Atypical responsiveness to sounds in infancy is such a potential early marker of autism. Here, we used pupillometry to quantify reactivity to social and nonsocial sounds in infants with a subsequent diagnosis. Previous research suggest that pupil dilation reflects attentional alerting, and link it to the locus coeruleus norepinephrine system. Methods: We measured pupil dilation responses to child‐directed speech and the sound of running water; sounds infants often hear in their everyday life. The final sample consisted of 99 ten‐month‐old infants (52 girls), of whom 68 had an elevated likelihood of autism and 31 were typically developing low‐likelihood infants. At follow‐up (36 months of age), 18 children in the elevated‐likelihood group were diagnosed with autism. Results: Compared to infants without diagnosis, the infants who were subsequently diagnosed with autism had larger pupil dilation when listening to nonsocial sounds, while reactivity to speech was strikingly similar between groups. In the total sample, more pupil dilation to the nonsocial sound was associated with higher levels of autistic symptoms. We also found that on a trial‐by‐trial basis, across all conditions and groups, more pupil dilation was associated with making fewer gaze shifts. Conclusions: This study did not find evidence of atypical pupillary reactivity to child‐directed speech early in life in autism. Instead, the results suggest that certain nonsocial sounds elicit atypically strong alerting responses in infants with a subsequent autism diagnosis. These findings may have important theoretical and clinical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Heightened motor activity is a hallmark of attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), yet high activity levels are also often reported in young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is currently unclear whether increased motor activity represents a distinct versus shared early predictor of ASD and ADHD; no prior studies have directly examined this prospectively. We investigated differences in longitudinal patterns of objectively measured motor activity during early development. Methods: Participants included 113 infants at high and low risk for ASD or ADHD. Continuous motion‐based activity was recorded using tri‐axial accelerometers at 12, 18, 24, and 36 months of age. At 36 months, participants were categorized into one of three outcome groups: ASD (n = 19), ADHD Concerns (n = 17), and Typically Developing (TD; n = 77). Group differences in trajectories of motor activity were examined in structured and semistructured contexts. Associations with behaviors relevant to ASD, ADHD, and general development were also examined. Results: In both structured and semistructured contexts, both the ASD and ADHD Concerns groups exhibited heightened activity relative to the TD group by 18 months; the ASD group exhibited higher activity than the ADHD Concerns group at 24–36 months in the structured context only. Attention/behavior regulation, nonverbal, and verbal development—but not social engagement—were differentially associated with objectively measured activity by outcome group across contexts. Conclusions: Overactivity may be a shared, rather than distinct, precursor of atypical development in infants/toddlers developing ASD and concerns for ADHD, emerging as early as 18 months. Group differences in overactivity may be context‐specific and associated with different underlying mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: With the outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic, pediatric experts called attention to the potential adverse effects of living restrictions (e.g., lockdown) on child well‐being, but at the same time– acknowledged their possible benefits. To date, only few data‐driven reports have been published on child sleep during COVID‐19, and all have been based on parent‐ or self‐reports. This study used auto‐videosomnography to capture the effects of COVID‐19 stay‐at‐home orders imposed in the USA on objectively measured infant sleep. Methods: Auto‐videosomnography metrics of infants assessed nightly between January and May 2020 were compared with metrics of an equivalent infant cohort, assessed in the corresponding 2019 period. A total of 610 infants (50.7% girls) aged 6–18 months (M = 11.8, SD = 3.6) were included, with 71,472 analyzed nights. Multilevel models were applied to assess differences between 2019 and 2020 infant sleep pre‐ and during‐lockdown. Results: Whereas infant cohorts were equivalent in demographic and January–March/April sleep characteristics, during the 2020 lockdown infants had longer nighttime sleep durations (Mdifference = 11.0 min, p =.01), later morning rise times (Mdifference = 9.5 min, p =.008), and later out‐of‐crib times (Mdifference = 12.3 min, p <.0001), compared to the equivalent 2019 period. In addition, weekday‐weekend differences in sleep onset and midpoint times were diminished during 2020 home‐confinement compared to the equivalent 2019 period (2019: Mdifference = 5.5 min, p <.0001; Mdifference = 4.5 min, p <.0001; 2020: Mdifference = 2.3 min, p =.01; Mdifference = 3.1 min, p <.0001, respectively). Conclusions: Notwithstanding the negative implications of COVID‐19 living restrictions in other domains, our findings indicate that there might be a silver lining—in promoting longer and more consistent infant sleep. These benefits should be considered in determining policy for the current and future pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is heritable, the mechanisms through which genes contribute to symptom emergence remain unclear. Investigating candidate intermediate phenotypes such as the pupillary light reflex (PLR) prospectively from early in development could bridge genotype and behavioural phenotype. Methods: Using eye tracking, we longitudinally measured the PLR at 9, 14 and 24 months in a sample of infants (N = 264) enriched for a family history of ASD; 27 infants received an ASD diagnosis at 3 years. We examined the 9‐ to 24‐month developmental trajectories of PLR constriction latency (onset; ms) and amplitude (%) and explored their relation to categorical 3‐year ASD outcome, polygenic liability for ASD and dimensional 3‐year social affect (SA) and repetitive/restrictive behaviour (RRB) traits. Polygenic scores for ASD (PGSASD) were calculated for 190 infants. Results: While infants showed a decrease in latency between 9 and 14 months, higher PGSASD was associated with a smaller decrease in latency in the first year (β = −.16, 95% CI = −0.31, −0.002); infants with later ASD showed a significantly steeper decrease in latency (a putative 'catch‐up') between 14 and 24 months relative to those with other outcomes (typical: β =.54, 95% CI = 0.08, 0.99; other: β =.53, 95% CI = 0.02, 1.04). Latency development did not associate with later dimensional variation in ASD‐related traits. In contrast, change in amplitude was not related to categorical ASD or genetics, but decreasing 9‐ to 14‐month amplitude was associated with higher SA (β =.08, 95% CI = 0.01, 0.14) and RRB (β =.05, 95% CI = 0.004, 0.11) traits. Conclusions: These findings corroborate PLR development as possible intermediate phenotypes being linked to both genetic liability and phenotypic outcomes. Future work should incorporate alternative measures (e.g. functionally informed structural and genetic measures) to test whether distinct neural mechanisms underpin PLR alterations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Diagnostic shifts at early ages may provide invaluable insights into the nature of separation between autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typical development. Recent conceptualizations of ASD suggest the condition is only fuzzily separated from non‐ASD, with intermediate cases between the two. These intermediate cases may shift along a transition region over time, leading to apparent instability of diagnosis. Methods: We used a cohort of children with high ASD risk, by virtue of having an older sibling with ASD, assessed at 24 months (N = 212) and 36 months (N = 191). We applied machine learning to empirically characterize the classification boundary between ASD and non‐ASD, using variables quantifying developmental and adaptive skills. We computed the distance of children to the classification boundary. Results: Children who switched diagnostic labels from 24 to 36 months, in both directions, (dynamic group) had intermediate phenotypic profiles. They were closer to the classification boundary compared to children who had stable diagnoses, both at 24 months (Cohen's d =.52) and at 36 months (d =.75). The magnitude of change in distance between the two time points was similar for the dynamic and stable groups (Cohen's d =.06), and diagnostic shifts were not associated with a large change. At the individual level, a few children in the dynamic group showed substantial change. Conclusions: Our results suggested that a diagnostic shift was largely due to a slight movement within a transition region between ASD and non‐ASD. This fact highlights the need for more vigilant surveillance and intervention strategies. Young children with intermediate phenotypes may have an increased susceptibility to gain or lose their diagnosis at later ages, calling attention to the inherently dynamic nature of early ASD diagnoses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To advance early identification efforts, we must detect and characterize neurodevelopmental sequelae of risk among population‐based samples early in development. However, variability across the typical‐to‐atypical continuum and heterogeneity within and across early emerging psychiatric/neurodevelopmental disorders represent fundamental challenges to overcome. Identifying multidimensionally determined profiles of risk, agnostic to DSM categories, via data‐driven computational approaches represents an avenue to improve early identification of risk. Methods: Factor mixture modeling (FMM) was used to identify subgroups and characterize phenotypic risk profiles, derived from multiple parent‐report measures of typical and atypical behaviors common to autism spectrum disorder, in a community‐based sample of 17‐ to 25‐month‐old toddlers (n = 1,570). To examine the utility of risk profile classification, a subsample of toddlers (n = 107) was assessed on a distal, independent outcome examining internalizing, externalizing, and dysregulation at approximately 30 months. Results: FMM results identified five asymmetrically sized subgroups. The putative high‐ and moderate‐risk groups comprised 6% of the sample. Follow‐up analyses corroborated the utility of the risk profile classification; the high‐, moderate‐, and low‐risk groups were differentially stratified (i.e., HR > moderate‐risk > LR) on outcome measures and comparison of high‐ and low‐risk groups revealed large effect sizes for internalizing (d = 0.83), externalizing (d = 1.39), and dysregulation (d = 1.19). Conclusions: This data‐driven approach yielded five subgroups of toddlers, the utility of which was corroborated by later outcomes. Data‐driven approaches, leveraging multiple developmentally appropriate dimensional RDoC constructs, hold promise for future efforts aimed toward early identification of at‐risk‐phenotypes for a variety of early emerging neurodevelopmental disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Impaired attention to faces of interactive partners is a marker for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in early childhood. However, it is unclear whether children with ASD avoid faces or find them less salient and whether the phenomenon is linked with the presence of eye contact or speech. Methods: We investigated the impacts of speech (SP) and direct gaze (DG) on attention to faces in 22‐month‐old toddlers with ASD (n = 50) and typically developing controls (TD, n = 47) using the Selective Social Attention 2.0 (SSA 2.0) task. The task consisted of four conditions where the presence (+) and absence (−) of DG and SP were systematically manipulated. The severity of autism symptoms, and verbal and nonverbal skills were characterized concurrently with eye tracking at 22.4 (SD = 3.2) months and prospectively at 39.8 (SD = 4.3) months. Results: Toddlers with ASD looked less than TD toddlers at face and mouth regions only when the actress was speaking (direct gaze absence with speech, DG−SP+: d = 0.99, p <.001 for face, d = 0.98, p <.001 for mouth regions; direct gaze present with speech, DG+SP+, d = 1.47, p <.001 for face, d = 1.01, p <.001 for mouth regions). Toddlers with ASD looked less at the eye region only when both gaze and speech cues were present (d = 0.46, p =.03). Salience of the combined DG and SP cues was associated concurrently and prospectively with the severity of autism symptoms, and the association remained significant after controlling for verbal and nonverbal levels. Conclusions: The study links poor attention to faces with limited salience of audiovisual speech and provides no support for the face avoidance hypothesis in the early stages of ASD. These results are consequential for research on early discriminant and predictive biomarkers as well as identification of novel treatment targets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Signs of autism are present in the first 2 years of life, but the average age of diagnosis lags far behind. Instruments that improve detection of autism risk in infancy are needed. This study developed and tested the psychometric properties of a novel video‐based approach to detecting ASD in infancy. Methods: A prospective longitudinal study of children at elevated or lower risk for autism spectrum disorder was conducted. Participants were 76 infants with an older sibling with ASD and 37 infants with no known family history of autism. The Video‐referenced Infant Rating System for Autism (VIRSA) is a web‐based application that presents pairs of videos of parents and infants playing together and requires forced‐choice judgments of which video is most similar to the child being rated. Parents rated participants on the VIRSA at 6, 9, 12, and 18 months of age. We examined split‐half and test–retest reliability; convergent and discriminant validity; and sensitivity, specificity, and negative and positive predictive value for concurrent and 36‐month ASD diagnoses. Results: The VIRSA demonstrated satisfactory reliability and convergent and discriminant validity. VIRSA ratings were significantly lower for children ultimately diagnosed with ASD than children with typical development by 12 months of age. VIRSA scores at 18 months identified all children diagnosed with ASD at that age, as well as 78% of children diagnosed at 36 months. Conclusions: This study represents an initial step in the development of a novel video‐based approach to detection of ASD in infancy. The VIRSA's psychometric properties were promising when used by parents with an older affected child, but still must be tested in community samples with no family history of ASD. If results are replicated, then the VIRSA's low‐burden, web‐based format has the potential to reduce disparities in communities with limited access to screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a complex pathogenesis. Individual differences in temperamental reactivity – in particular, anger reactivity – are predictive of ADHD. The goal of this study was to examine the moderating (maternal caregiving behaviors; MCB) and mediating (inhibitory control) variables of reactivity using a 9‐year multimethod prospective longitudinal design. Methods: Participants included 291 children (135 male; 156 female) who participated in a larger study of temperament and social‐emotional development. Anger reactivity was assessed by observation of facial anger during an arm restraint task, and MCB were observed during a series of semi‐structured mother–infant tasks, both at 9 months of age. Inhibitory control was assessed by performance on a go/no‐go task at 5 years of age. ADHD symptoms were assessed by parent and teacher report questionnaires at 7 and 9 years, respectively. Results: Anger reactivity and poor inhibitory control were predictive of later ADHD symptoms. Results supported a moderated mediation model, in which the indirect effects of anger reactivity on ADHD symptoms through inhibitory control were conditional on quality of early MCB. Inhibitory control mediated the effect of anger reactivity on ADHD symptoms, but only among children exposed to lower‐quality MCB. Conclusions: Infant anger reactivity exerts a direct effect on later ADHD from infancy, suggesting anger reactivity as a very early indicator of ADHD risk. Higher‐quality caregiving did not buffer against the direct risk of anger reactivity on ADHD but did buffer against the indirect risk by reducing the negative effect of anger reactivity on inhibitory control. Thus, in the developmental pathway from anger reactivity to ADHD, more sensitive, less intrusive parenting supports the development of protective mechanisms (i.e. inhibitory control) to remediate ADHD risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Sleep variables have been linked to improved functioning of learning and memory throughout life, with most studies focusing on older children and adults. Since infancy is a time of outstanding plasticity, sleep variables could be particularly important for cognitive development in that age group. Methods: This is a longitudinal study collecting data from 40 infants at four different time points of 4, 6, 8 and 10 months. Sleep variables were assessed using actigraphy for a week, as well as a sleep questionnaire. Eye‐tracking was employed to examine developmental cognitive trajectories. Infants had to remember the location of a toy that had previously been linked to a sound and an eye‐tracker recorded whether they were searching the correct location upon hearing the sound. Results: Based on their trajectories between 4 and 10 months, infants were divided into two groups who shifted their response strategies at different time points. Those two groups also differed in other aspects of their looking patterns and scored increasingly differently in the Ages & Stages Questionnaire over time. Time spent awake in the night early in life was reduced in the group who changed their strategy earlier. Conclusions: While previous research examined the relation of infant sleep and cognitive functioning measured once, this paper provides first evidence that night wake time can serve as a marker for different cognitive trajectories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with origins early in life. There is growing evidence that individual differences in temperament reactivity are predictive of ADHD symptoms, yet little is known about the relations between temperament reactivity in early infancy and later ADHD symptoms or the combined effect of reactivity with early environmental factors on ADHD symptom development. Using a 9‐year prospective longitudinal design, this study tested the independent and interactive contributions of infant reactivity and maternal caregiving behaviors (MCB) on parent‐ and teacher‐reported childhood ADHD symptoms. Methods: Participants included 291 children (135 male; 156 female) who participated in a larger study of temperament and social–emotional development. Reactivity was assessed by behavioral observation of negative affect, positive affect, and motor activity during novel stimuli presentations at 4 months of age. MCB were observed during a series of semistructured mother–infant tasks at 9 months of age. Finally, ADHD symptoms were assessed by parent‐ and teacher‐report questionnaires at 7 and 9 years, respectively. Results: Reactivity was predictive of ADHD symptoms, but results were sex specific. For boys, infant motor activity was positively predictive of later ADHD symptoms, but only at lower quality MCB. For girls, infant positive affect was positively predictive of later ADHD symptoms at lower quality MCB, and—unexpectedly—infant positive affect and motor activity were negatively predictive of later ADHD symptoms at higher quality MCB. Conclusions: These results point to early parenting as a moderating factor to mitigate temperament‐related risk for later ADHD, suggesting this as a potential intervention target to mitigate risk for ADHD among reactive infants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Effective multisensory processing develops in infancy and is thought to be important for the perception of unified and multimodal objects and events. Previous research suggests impaired multisensory processing in autism, but its role in the early development of the disorder is yet uncertain. Here, using a prospective longitudinal design, we tested whether reduced visual attention to audiovisual synchrony is an infant marker of later‐emerging autism diagnosis. Methods: We studied 10‐month‐old siblings of children with autism using an eye tracking task previously used in studies of preschoolers. The task assessed the effect of manipulations of audiovisual synchrony on viewing patterns while the infants were observing point light displays of biological motion. We analyzed the gaze data recorded in infancy according to diagnostic status at 3 years of age (DSM‐5). Results: Ten‐month‐old infants who later received an autism diagnosis did not orient to audiovisual synchrony expressed within biological motion. In contrast, both infants at low‐risk and high‐risk siblings without autism at follow‐up had a strong preference for this type of information. No group differences were observed in terms of orienting to upright biological motion. Conclusions: This study suggests that reduced orienting to audiovisual synchrony within biological motion is an early sign of autism. The findings support the view that poor multisensory processing could be an important antecedent marker of this neurodevelopmental condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Callous‐unemotional (CU) traits are characterized by a lack of responsiveness to the emotions of others, particularly negative emotions. A parenting environment where the child's own distress emotions are sensitively responded to may help foster the child's ability to respond to the emotions of others. We tested whether maternal sensitivity to distress, and other parenting characteristics, were associated with CU traits over the preschool period, and examined whether this was mediated via infant attachment status. Method: In an epidemiological cohort, CU traits were assessed at age 2.5, 3.5, and 5.0 years by mother report. Dimensions of parenting were assessed in free play at age 29 weeks in a stratified subsample of 272, and attachment status at 14 months (n = 265). Structural equation modelling with maximum likelihood estimation was used to examine predictions from parenting dimensions and attachment status. Results: A parenting factor comprised of sensitivity to distress (n = 207), sensitivity to non‐distress, positive regard toward the infant (or warmth), and intrusiveness, predicted child CU traits (p = .023). This effect was accounted for mainly by sensitivity to distress (p = .008) and positive regard (p = .023) which showed a synergistic effect as evidenced by a significant interaction (p = .01). This arose because the combination of low sensitivity to distress and low positive regard created the risk for elevated CU traits. Although sensitivity and positive regard predicted attachment security and disorganization, there were no associations between attachment status and CU traits. Conclusions: The finding of contributions from both sensitivity to distress and positive regard to reduced CU traits suggests that children's responsiveness to others’ emotions may be increased by their own mothers’ responsiveness to them and their mothers’ warmth. There was no evidence that this was mediated via attachment status. Implications for intervention and future directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Early language skills are critical for later academic success. Lower socioeconomic status (SES) children tend to start school with limited language skills compared to advantaged peers. We test the hypothesis that this is due in part to differences in caregiver contingent talk during infancy (how often the caregiver talks about what is in the focus of the infant's attention). Methods In a randomised controlled trial with high and low SES families, 142 11-month olds and their caregivers were randomly allocated to either a contingent talk intervention or a dental health control. Families in the language intervention watched a video about contingent talk and were asked to practise it for 15 min a day for a month. Caregiver communication was assessed at baseline and after 1 month. Infant communication was assessed at baseline, 12, 15, 18 and 24 months. Results At baseline, social gradients were observed in caregiver contingent talk to their 11-month olds (but not in infant communication). At posttest, when infants were 12 months old, caregivers across the SES spectrum who had been allocated to the language intervention group engaged in significantly more contingent talk. Lower SES caregivers in this intervention group also reported that their children produced significantly more words at 15 and 18 months. Effects of the intervention did not persist at 24 months. Instead expressive vocabulary at this age was best predicted by baseline infant communication, baseline contingent talk and SES. Conclusions A social gradient in children's communication emerges during the second year of life. A low-intensity intervention demonstrated that it is possible to increase caregiver contingent talk and that this is effective in promoting vocabulary growth for lower SES infants in the short term. However, these effects are not long-lasting, suggesting that follow-up interventions may be necessary to yield benefits lasting to school entry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background As a neurodevelopmental disorder, symptoms of ASD likely emerge from a complex interaction between preexisting genetic vulnerabilities and the child's environment. One way to understand causal paths to ASD is to identify dimensional ASD-related traits that vary in the general population and that predispose individuals with other risk factors toward ASD. Moving beyond behavioral traits to explore underlying neurocognitive processes may further constrain the underlying genetics. Endophenotypes are quantitative, heritable, trait-related differences that are generally assessed with laboratory-based methods, can be identified in the general population, and may be more closely tied to particular causal chains that have a more restricted set of genetic roots. The most fruitful endophenotypes may be those observed in infancy, prior to the emergence of behavioral symptoms that they are hypothesized to cause. Social motivation is an ASD-related trait that is highly heritable. In this study, we investigate whether infant endophenotypes of social attention relate to familial risk for lower social motivation in the general population. Methods We examined whether infant social attention (measured using habituation, EEG power, and event-related potential tasks previously used in infants/toddlers with ASD) varies quantitatively with parental social motivation in 117 six-month-old and 106 twelve-month-old typically developing infants assessed cross-sectionally. To assess heritable aspects of social motivation, primary caregiver biological parents completed two self-report measures of social avoidance and discomfort that have shown high heritability in previous work. Results Parents with higher social discomfort and avoidance had infants who showed shorter looks to faces but not objects; reduced theta power during naturalistic social attention; and smaller P400 responses to faces versus objects. Conclusions Early reductions in social attention are continuously related to lower parental social motivation. Alterations in social attention may be infant endophenotypes of social motivation traits related to ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Links between mothers' postnatal depression (PND) and children's cognition have been identified in several samples, but the evidence is inconsistent. We hypothesized that PND may specifically interfere with infants' imitation, an early learning ability that features in early mother-infant interaction and is linked to memory, causal understanding and joint attention. Methods A randomly controlled experiment on imitation was embedded into a longitudinal study of a representative sample of firstborn British infants, whose mothers were assessed for depression using the SCAN interview during pregnancy and at 6 months postpartum. At a mean of 12.8 months, 253 infants were presented with two imitation tasks that varied in difficulty, in counterbalanced order. Results The infants of mothers who experienced PND were significantly less likely than other infants in the sample to imitate the modelled actions, showing a 72% reduction in the likelihood of imitation. The association with PND was not explained by sociodemographic adversity, or a history of depression during pregnancy or prior to conception. Mothers' references to infants' internal states during mother-infant interaction at 6 months facilitated imitation at 12 months, but did not explain the link with PND. Conclusions The findings support the hypothesis that associations between PND and later cognitive outcomes may partly derive from effects of the mother's illness on infants' early learning abilities. Support for infants' learning should be considered as an age-appropriate, child-focused component of interventions designed to ameliorate the effects of PND. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Extensive animal research has demonstrated the vulnerability of the brain to early life stress ( ELS) with consequences for emotional development and mental health. However, the influence of moderate and common forms of stress on early human brain development is less well-understood and precisely characterized. To date, most work has focused on severe forms of stress, and/or on brain functioning years after stress exposure. Methods In this report we focused on conflict between parents (interparental conflict), a common and relatively moderate form of ELS that is highly relevant for children's mental health outcomes. We used resting state functional connectivity MRI to examine the coordinated functioning of the infant brain ( N = 23; 6-12-months-of-age) in the context of interparental conflict. We focused on the default mode network ( DMN) due to its well-characterized developmental trajectory and implications for mental health. We further examined DMN strength as a mediator between conflict and infants' negative emotionality. Results Higher interparental conflict since birth was associated with infants showing stronger connectivity between two core DMN regions, the posterior cingulate cortex ( PCC) and the anterior medial prefrontal cortex ( aMPFC). PCC to amygdala connectivity was also increased. Stronger PCC- aMPFC connectivity mediated between higher conflict and higher negative infant emotionality. Conclusions The developing DMN may be an important marker for effects of ELS with relevance for emotional development and subsequent mental health. Increasing understanding of the associations between common forms of family stress and emerging functional brain networks has potential to inform intervention efforts to improve mental health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Strong associations between infant vocabulary and school-age language and literacy skills would have important practical and theoretical implications: Preschool assessment of vocabulary skills could be used to identify children at risk of reading and language difficulties, and vocabulary could be viewed as a cognitive foundation for reading. However, evidence to date suggests predictive ability from infant vocabulary to later language and literacy is low. This study provides an investigation into, and interpretation of, the magnitude of such infant to school-age relationships. Methods Three hundred British infants whose vocabularies were assessed by parent report in the 2nd year of life (between 16 and 24 months) were followed up on average 5 years later (ages ranged from 4 to 9 years), when their vocabulary, phonological and reading skills were measured. Results Structural equation modelling of age-regressed scores was used to assess the strength of longitudinal relationships. Infant vocabulary (a latent factor of receptive and expressive vocabulary) was a statistically significant predictor of later vocabulary, phonological awareness, reading accuracy and reading comprehension (accounting for between 4% and 18% of variance). Family risk for language or literacy difficulties explained additional variance in reading (approximately 10%) but not language outcomes. Conclusions Significant longitudinal relationships between preliteracy vocabulary knowledge and subsequent reading support the theory that vocabulary is a cognitive foundation of both reading accuracy and reading comprehension. Importantly however, the stability of vocabulary skills from infancy to later childhood is too low to be sufficiently predictive of language outcomes at an individual level - a finding that fits well with the observation that the majority of 'late talkers' resolve their early language difficulties. For reading outcomes, prediction of future difficulties is likely to be improved when considering family history of language/literacy difficulties alongside infant vocabulary levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Epidemiological studies infancy predictors of mental disorders are scarce. Methods The study is part of a longitudinal birth-cohort study, The Copenhagen Child Cohort CCC2000. Infant mental health and development and mother-infant relations were assessed by community health nurses from birth to age 10 months. Data on the perinatal period were obtained from Danish National Registers. Mental health outcome at age 5-7 years was investigated in 1,585 children who were assessed by the Developmental and Well-Being Assessment ( DAWBA) and diagnosed according to the ICD-10. Results Predictors of autism spectrum disorders were problems of oral-motor development OR 5.02 (95% CI: 1.63-15.42) and overall development OR 4.24 (95% CI: 1.35-13.33). A deviant pattern of activity and interests were predictive of autism spectrum disorder, OR 5.34 (95% CI 1.45-19.70) and hyperkinetic disorder, OR 4.71 (95% CI: 1.28-17.39). Hyperkinetic disorder was furthermore predicted by mother-infant relationship problems, OR 8.07 (95% CI: 2.90-22.47). The significant associations between infant developmental problems and autism spectrum disorders persisted in multiple logistic regression analyses controlled for maternal psychological problems and mother-infant relationship problems, OR 3.21 (95% CI: 1.09-9.45). Mother-infant relationship problems remained strongly associated to hyperkinetic disorders in the multivariate analyses controlled for child development problems and maternal psychological problems, OR 5.20 (95% CI: 1.55-17.47). No significant infancy predictors were found regarding emotional and behavioural disorders at age 5-7 years. Conclusion Predictors of autism spectrum/pervasive developmental disorders and hyperkinetic disorders at child age 5-7 years were identified between birth and child age 10 months in community health settings. The study results suggest potential areas of early preventive intervention, which have to be further explored regarding the psychometric qualities of the identification of infants at risk, and concerning methods to handle and intervene towards these children in the general child health surveillance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Behavioral inhibition (BI), the tendency to withdraw or exhibit negative affect when experiencing stressful situations, is a major risk factor for the development of social anxiety. However, neonatal biologic origins of this progression are still unknown. Click here to enter text.This study aimed to extend frameworks of behavioral inhibition by exploring empirically the central role of neonatal brainstem electrophysiologic functions in the development of social disengagement and BI. Methods: Sixty-six preterm neonates (means ± SD: gestation age = 33.1 ± 1.22 weeks, birth weight = 1775 + 346.7 g; 51% female) participated in a prospective longitudinal study. The infants were tested within the first 2 weeks of postnatal life using an auditory brainstem-evoked response test. Based on the typicality of the major ABR wave latencies, waves I, III and V, neonates were divided into two groups (compromised, CBSF- with at least one component ≥1.5 SDs from the mean for the respective gestation age; normal, NBSF, with all components within 1.5 SD around the mean), and were enrolled in a prospective longitudinal follow-up study. This report extends previous work from 4 m by testing responses to socioemotional challenges during the Separation--Reunion paradigm at 12 m. Results: Results show that infants with neonatal CBSF were more susceptible to be classified as BI at 12 m (age corrected for prematurity) than infants with NBSF (66% vs. 40%, respectively). The most striking symptom in the CBSF group was a disability to initiate self-regulatory activities in response to a socioemotional challenge, resulting in frequent passivity/dependency (p < .001). Statistical regression analysis revealed that face-to-face gaze engagement at 4 m moderates the risk related to neonatal CBSF for the emergence of BI at 12 m, but did not overturn the emergence of BI. Conclusion: Results support the hypothesis that neonatal brainstem dysfunction canalizes behavioral inhibition. These findings highlight, for the first time, the role of the early developing brainstem in later development of BI and in abilities to initiate self-regulatory behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Cross-species evidence suggests that genetic and experiential factors act early in development to establish individual emotional traits, but little is known about the mechanisms that emerge during this period to mediate long-term outcomes. Here, we tested the hypothesis that known genetic and environmental risk conditions may heighten infants' natural tendency to attend to threat-alerting stimuli, resulting in a cognitive bias that may contribute to emotional vulnerability. Methods: Data from two samples of 5-7-month-old infants (N = 139) were used to examine whether established candidate variations in the serotonin-system genes, i.e., TPH2 SNP rs4570625 (-703 G/T) and HTR1A SNP rs6295 (-1019 G/C), and early rearing condition (maternal stress and depressive symptoms) are associated with alterations in infants' attention to facial expressions. Infants were tested with a paradigm that assesses the ability to disengage attention from a centrally presented stimulus (a nonface control stimulus or a neutral, happy, or fearful facial expression) toward the location of a new stimulus in the visual periphery (a geometric shape). Results: TPH2 -703 T-carrier genotype (i.e., TT homozygotes and heterozygotes), presence of maternal stress and depressive symptoms, and a combination of the T-carrier genotype and maternal depressive symptoms were associated with a relatively greater difficulty disengaging attention from fearful facial expressions. No associations were found with infants' temperamental traits. Conclusions: Alterations in infants' natural attentional bias toward fearful facial expressions may emerge prior to the manifestation of emotional and social behaviors and provide a sensitive marker of early emotional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Allelic variation in the promoter region of a gene that encodes tryptophan hydroxylase isoform 2 (TPH2), a rate-limiting enzyme of serotonin synthesis in the central nervous system, has been associated with variations in cognitive function and vulnerability to affective spectrum disorders. Little is known about the effects of this gene variant on cognition during development and about possible intermediate developmental steps that lead to the adult phenotype. Here, we examined the hypothesis that the TPH2 -703 may act during early stages of development and bias the acquisition of elementary cognitive processes involved in attention and emotion regulation. Methods: Seven-month-old infants ( n = 66) were genotyped for the TPH2 -703 G/T polymorphism ( rs4570625) and tested for the efficiency of attention shifts from a stimulus at fixation to a new stimulus in the visual periphery. Results: Compared to TPH2 G/G homozygotes, infants with the T-carrier genotype exhibited a significantly higher number of missing attention shifts. This genotype effect tended to be particularly pronounced when infants had to disengage from an affectively salient stimulus before shifting attention to the peripheral stimulus. The results also showed that TPH2 genotype was indirectly associated, via its effect on attention disengagement, with temperamental emotion regulation (soothability). Conclusions: Together, these results implicate serotonin system genes in early cognitive development and suggest variations in the early-emerging cognitive capacities as a potential developmental precursor of individual differences in emotion regulation and vulnerability to affective disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background:  Research points to the importance of breastfeeding for promoting close mother–infant contact and social‐emotional development. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have identified brain regions related to maternal behaviors. However, little research has addressed the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the relationship between breastfeeding and maternal behavior in human mothers. We investigated the associations between breastfeeding, maternal brain response to own infant stimuli, and maternal sensitivity in the early postpartum. Methods:  Seventeen biological mothers of healthy infants participated in two matched groups according to feeding method – exclusive breastfeeding and exclusive formula‐feeding at 2–4 weeks postpartum. fMRI scanning was conducted in the first postpartum month to examine maternal brain activation in response to her own baby's cry versus control baby‐cry. Dyadic interactions between mothers and infants at 3–4 months postpartum were videotaped in the home and blindly coded for maternal sensitivity. Results:  In the first postpartum month, breastfeeding mothers showed greater activations in the superior frontal gyrus, insula, precuneus, striatum, and amygdala while listening to their own baby‐cry as compared to formula‐feeding mothers. For both breastfeeding and formula‐feeding mothers, greater activations in the right superior frontal gyrus and amygdala were associated with higher maternal sensitivity at 3–4 months postpartum. Conclusions:  Results suggest links between breastfeeding and greater response to infant cues in brain regions implicated in maternal–infant bonding and empathy during the early postpartum. Such brain activations may facilitate greater maternal sensitivity as infants enter their social world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prenatal exposure to inappropriate levels of glucocorticoids (GCs) and maternal stress are putative mechanisms for the fetal programming of later health outcomes. The current investigation examined the influence of prenatal maternal cortisol and maternal psychosocial stress on infant physiological and behavioral responses to stress. The study sample comprised 116 women and their full term infants. Maternal plasma cortisol and report of stress, anxiety and depression were assessed at 15, 19, 25, 31 and 36 + weeks' gestational age. Infant cortisol and behavioral responses to the painful stress of a heel-stick blood draw were evaluated at 24 hours after birth. The association between prenatal maternal measures and infant cortisol and behavioral stress responses was examined using hierarchical linear growth curve modeling. A larger infant cortisol response to the heel-stick procedure was associated with exposure to elevated concentrations of maternal cortisol during the late second and third trimesters. Additionally, a slower rate of behavioral recovery from the painful stress of a heel-stick blood draw was predicted by elevated levels of maternal cortisol early in pregnancy as well as prenatal maternal psychosocial stress throughout gestation. These associations could not be explained by mode of delivery, prenatal medical history, socioeconomic status or child race, sex or birth order. These data suggest that exposure to maternal cortisol and psychosocial stress exerts programming influences on the developing fetus with consequences for infant stress regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Infants and preschoolers with ASD show impairment in their responses to other people’s distress relative to children with other developmental delays and typically developing children. This deficit is expected to disrupt social interactions, social learning, and the formation of close relationships. Response to distress has not been evaluated previously in infants with ASD earlier than 18 months of age. Methods: Participants were 103 infant siblings of children with autism and 55 low-risk controls. All children were screened for ASD at 36 months and 14 were diagnosed with ASD. Infants’ responsiveness to distress was evaluated at 12, 18, 24, and 36 months. An examiner pretended to hit her finger with a toy mallet and infants’ responses were video-recorded. Attention to the examiner and congruent changes in affect were coded on four-point Likert scales. Results: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses confirm that the ASD group paid less attention and demonstrated less change in affect in response to the examiner’s distress relative to the high-risk and low-risk participants who were not subsequently diagnosed with ASD. Group differences remained when verbal skills and general social responsiveness were included in the analytic models. Conclusions: Diagnostic groups differ on distress response from 12 to 36 months of age. Distress-response measures are predictive of later ASD diagnosis above and beyond verbal impairments. Distress response is a worthwhile target for early intervention programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The importance of understanding which environmental and biological factors are involved in determining individual differences in physiological response to stress is widely recognized, given the impact that stress has on physical and mental health. Methods: The child–mother attachment relationship and some genetic polymorphisms (5-HTTLPR, COMT and GABRA6) were tested as predictors of salivary cortisol and alpha amylase concentrations, two biomarkers of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis and sympathetic adrenomedullary (SAM) system activity, during the Strange Situation (SS) procedure in a sample of more than 100 healthy infants, aged 12 to 18 months. Results: Individual differences in alpha amylase response to separation were predicted by security of attachment in interaction with 5-HTTLPR and GABRA6 genetic polymorphisms, whereas alpha amylase basal levels were predicted by COMT × attachment interaction. No significant effect of attachment, genetics and their interaction on cortisol activity emerged. Conclusions: These results help to disentangle the role played by both genetic and environmental factors in determining individual differences in stress response in infancy. The results also shed light on the suggestion that HPA and SAM systems are likely to have different characteristic responses to stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Exposure to anger in the family is a risk factor for disruptive behavior disorders characterized by ineffective vagal regulation. Effects of anger on developing vagal regulation may be due to direct exposure or to effects on parents’ regulation of emotion as parents support infants’ regulation. Little is known about the impact of anger during infancy when important regulatory systems emerge. Methods: Six-month-old infants ( N = 48) and their mothers were exposed to anger, excitement, or neutral affect then observed in the Still-Face Paradigm (SFP). Vagal tone, indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), was measured. Results: Infants exposed to anger subsequently showed greater RSA withdrawal to mothers’ still-face than infants exposed to other emotions. Mothers exposed to anger showed greater RSA withdrawal than other mothers during emotion exposure and across all episodes of the SFP. Conclusions: Exposure to anger may sensitize infants to stress and lead to increased need for physiological regulation. Exposure to anger makes increased demands on mothers’ self-regulation, which could detract from their abilities to support infants’ regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Depressive and anxiety disorders are among the top ten leading causes of disabilities. We know little, however, about the onset, developmental course and early risk factors for depressive and anxiety symptoms (DAS). Objective: Model the developmental trajectories of DAS during early childhood and to identify risk factors for atypically high DAS. Method: Group-based developmental trajectories of DAS conditional on risk factors were estimated from annual maternal ratings (1½ to 5 years) in a large population sample ( n = 1759). Results: DAS increased substantially in two of the three distinct trajectory groups identified: High-Rising (14.7%); Moderate-Rising (55.4%); and Low (29.9%). Two factors distinguished the High-Rising group from the other two: Difficult temperament at 5 months (High-Rising vs Moderate-Rising: OR = 1.32; 95% CI = 1.13–1.55; High-Rising vs Low: OR = 1.31, CI = 1.12–1.54) and maternal lifetime major depression (High-Rising vs Moderate-Rising: OR = 1.10; CI = 1.01–1.20; High-Rising vs Low: OR = 1.19; CI = 1.08–1.31). Two factors distinguished the High-Rising group from the Low group: High family dysfunction (OR = 1.24; CI = 1.03–1.5) and Low parental self-efficacy (OR = .71; CI = .54–.94). Conclusions: DAS tend to increase in frequency over the first 5 years of life. Atypically high level can be predicted from mother and child characteristics present before 6 months of age. Preventive interventions should be experimented with at risk infants and parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Trials in developing countries suggest that improving young children’s diet may benefit cognitive development. Whether dietary composition influences young children’s cognition in developed countries is unclear. Although many studies have examined the relation between type of milk received in infancy and subsequent cognition, there has been no investigation of the possible effect of variations in the weaning diet. Methods: We studied 241 children aged 4 years, whose diet had been assessed at age 6 and 12 months. We measured IQ with the Wechsler Pre-School and Primary Scale of Intelligence, visual attention, visuomotor precision, sentence repetition and verbal fluency with the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment (NEPSY), and visual form-constancy with the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills. Results: In sex-adjusted analyses, children whose diet in infancy was characterised by high consumption of fruit, vegetables and home-prepared foods (‘infant guidelines’ dietary pattern) had higher full-scale and verbal IQ and better memory performance at age 4 years. Further adjustment for maternal education, intelligence, social class, quality of the home environment and other potential confounding factors attenuated these associations but the relations between higher ‘infant guidelines’ diet score and full-scale and verbal IQ remained significant. For a standard deviation increase in ‘infant guidelines’ diet score at 6 or 12 months full-scale IQ rose by .18 (95% CI .04 to .31) of a standard deviation. For a standard deviation increase in ‘infant guidelines’ diet score at 6 months verbal IQ rose by .14 (.01 to .27) of a standard deviation. There were no associations between dietary patterns in infancy and 4-year performance on the other tests. Conclusions: These findings suggest that dietary patterns in early life may have some effect on cognitive development. It is also possible that they reflect the influence of unmeasured confounding factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Recent studies of infant siblings of children diagnosed with autism have allowed for a prospective approach to examine the emergence of symptoms and revealed behavioral differences in the broader autism phenotype within the early years. In the current study we focused on a set of functions associated with visual attention, previously reported to be atypical in autism. Method: We compared performance of a group of 9–10-month-old infant siblings of children with autism to a control group with no family history of autism on the ‘gap-overlap task’, which measures the cost of disengaging from a central stimulus in order to fixate a peripheral one. Two measures were derived on the basis of infants’ saccadic reaction times. The first is the Disengagement effect, which measures the efficiency of disengaging from a central stimulus to orient to a peripheral one. The second was a Facilitation effect, which arises when the infant is cued by a temporal gap preceding the onset of the peripheral stimulus, and would orient faster after its onset. Results and conclusion: Infant siblings of children with autism showed longer Disengagement latencies as well as less Facilitation relative to the control group. The findings are discussed in relation to how differences in visual attention may relate to characteristics observed in autism and the broader phenotype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine group differences and relationships with later developmental level and autism symptoms using a new clinical tool developed to measure repetitive and stereotyped movements (RSM) in young children. Method: Videotaped behavior samples using the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile (CSBS; Wetherby & Prizant, 2002 ) were coded for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD; n = 50), developmental delays without ASD (DD; n = 25), and typical development (TD; n = 50) between 18 and 24 months of age. Results: Children with ASD demonstrated significantly higher rate and larger inventory of RSM with objects and body during a systematic behavior sample than both the DD and TD groups. Measures of RSM were related to concurrent measures of social communication and predicted developmental outcomes and autism symptoms in the fourth year for the ASD group. None of the correlations between RSM and autism symptoms remained significant when controlling for CSBS Symbolic level. RSM with objects predicted unique variance in the severity of autism symptoms in the fourth year beyond that predicted by social communication measures alone. Conclusions: This study provides support for the diagnostic significance of RSM in children under 24 months of age and documents the utility of this RSM measurement tool as a companion to the CSBS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Children with cleft lip and palate are at risk for psychological problems. Difficulties in mother–child interactions may be relevant, and could be affected by the timing of lip repair. Method: We assessed cognitive development, behaviour problems, and attachment in 94 infants with cleft lip (with and without cleft palate) and 96 non-affected control infants at 18 months; mother–infant interactions were assessed at two, six and 12 months. Index infants received either ‘early’, neonatal, lip repair, or ‘late’ repair (3–4 months). Results: Index infants did not differ from controls on measures of behaviour problems or attachment, regardless of timing of lip repair; however, infants having late lip repair performed worse on the Bayley Scales of Mental Development; the cognitive development of early repair infants was not impaired. Difficulties in early mother–infant interactions mediated the effects of late lip repair on infant cognitive outcome. Conclusions: Early interaction difficulties between mothers and infants having late repair of cleft lip are associated with poor cognitive functioning at 18 months. Interventions to facilitate mother–infant interactions prior to surgical lip repair should be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Few studies have examined the variability in outcomes of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at age 2. Research is needed to understand the children whose symptoms – or diagnoses – change over time. The objectives of this study were to examine the behavioral and diagnostic outcomes of a carefully defined sample of 2-year-old children with ASD, and to identify child and environmental factors that contribute to variability in outcomes at age 4. Methods: Forty-eight children diagnosed with autism or pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDDNOS) at age 2 were followed to age 4. Diagnostic measures included the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule – Generic (ADOS-G) and clinical diagnosis at ages 2 and 4, and the ADI-R at age 4. Results: Diagnostic stability for an ASD diagnosis (autism or PDDNOS) was 63%, and for an autism diagnosis was 68%. Children who failed to meet diagnostic criteria for ASD at follow-up were more likely to: 1) be 30 months or younger at initial evaluation; 2) have milder symptoms of autism, particularly in the social domain; and 3) have higher cognitive scores at age 2. No differences between children with stable and unstable diagnoses were found for amount of intervention services received. Among the children with unstable diagnoses, all but one continued to have developmental disorders, most commonly in the area of language. Conclusions: The stability of ASD was lower in the present study than has been reported previously, a finding largely attributable to children who were diagnosed at 30 months or younger. Implications for clinical practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine how maternal depressive symptoms are related to infant development among low-income infants in rural Bangladesh and to examine how the relationship is affected by maternal perceptions of infant irritability and observations of caregiving practices. Methods: Development was measured among 221 infants at 6 and 12 months with the Bayley Scales II. Mothers reported on their depressive symptoms and on perceptions of their infant's temperament, and a home visit was made to complete the HOME Inventory. Results: Half (52%) the mothers reported depressive symptoms. In bivariate analyses, maternal depressive symptoms were related to low scores on the Bayley Scales. Infants whose mothers reported depressive symptoms and perceived their infants to be irritable acquired fewer cognitive, motor, and Orientation/Engagement skills between 6–12 months than infants whose mothers reported neither or only one condition. The relationship linking maternal depressive symptoms and perceived infant irritability with infant cognitive skills was partially mediated by parental responsiveness and opportunities for play in the home. Conclusions: The intergenerational risks of maternal depressive symptoms on infant development extend to rural Bangladesh and are accentuated when mothers perceive their infants as irritable. Mothers who report depressive symptoms and infant irritability may lack the capacity to provide responsive, developmentally-oriented caregiving environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Studies have suggested that nonmaternal care (NMC) may either carry risks or be beneficial for children's language development. However, few tested the possibility that NMC may be more or less protective for children with different family backgrounds. This study investigates the role of the family environment, as reflected in the socioeconomic status (SES), in the association between NMC in the first year of life and children's receptive language skills prior to school entry. Method: A representative sample of 2,297 Canadian children aged between 0 and 11 months at their first assessment was followed over 4 years. Receptive language skills were assessed with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Revised (PPVT-R) when the child was 4 to 5 years old. Results: After controlling for selection factors, SES was found to moderate the association between NMC and receptive language skills: Full-time NMC in the first year of life was associated with higher PPVT-R scores among children from low SES families ( d = .58), but not among children from adequate SES families. Conclusion: Full-time NMC in infancy may contribute to reducing the cognitive inequalities between children of low and adequate SES. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Programs for parents of young children hold considerable promise for improving children's life-course trajectories and for reducing health and development problems and associated costs to government and society. To date, this promise has not been achieved. Fulfilling the potential of parenting interventions will require substantial improvements in current practice for developing and testing such programs. Intervention development will be improved if clinicians and investigators ground parenting interventions in theory and epidemiology; and carefully pilot them to ascertain program feasibility, participant engagement, and behavioral change prior to testing them in randomized trials. Studies of parenting interventions will be improved if they adhere to the highest standards for randomization; if they examine objectively measured outcomes with clear public health relevance; and if they minimize selection factors known to compromise the analysis of data. Policy and practice recommendations for parenting interventions will be improved if they are based upon replicated randomized controlled trials, if the interventions are tested with different populations living in different contexts, and if they are examined in dissemination studies before public investments are made in such programs. Procedures need to be developed to ensure that the essential elements of evidence-based parenting programs can be implemented reliably in a variety of practice settings so that they will produce their intended effects. To date, few programs have met these high programmatic and evidentiary standards, with the result that many large-scale policy initiatives for at-risk parents have failed. Evidence is accumulating, however, that some programs delivered by professionals, especially nurse home visiting programs for pregnant women and parents of young children, produce replicable effects on children's health and development, and that these programs can be reliably reproduced with different populations living in a variety of community settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: We assess individual differences in the caregiving environments of young children being raised in institutions in Romania in relation to developmental characteristics such as physical growth, cognitive development, emotional expression, and problem and competence behaviors. Method: Videotaped observations of the child and favorite caregiver in their ‘home’ environment were coded for caregiving quality, and this was related to child characteristics. Child emotional reactivity was assessed during responses to interactional tasks. Cognitive development was assessed from child responses to the Bayley Scales of Infant Development. Data regarding problem behaviors and competence were obtained from caregiver report. Children reared in institutions were compared on all of these measures to never institutionalized children to assist gauging degree of impairment. Results: Children raised in institutions demonstrated marked delays in cognitive development, poorer physical growth, and marked deficits in competence. Individual differences in caregiving environment were associated with cognitive development, competence, and negative behavior among these young children being reared in institutions. Conclusions: These data confirm previous findings regarding deficits associated with institutional care and extend our understanding of the impact of individual differences in caregiving quality on the development of young children in institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Copenhagen Child Cohort, CCC 2000, was established to investigate developmental psychopathology prospectively from birth in a general population. Methods: A random sample of 211 children from the CCC 2000 was investigated when the children were 1½ years of age. The prevalence and associates of mental health problems and psychopathology were studied by clinical and standardised strategies, including videotape recordings, parent interviews and the following instruments: The Child Behavior Check List 1½–5 (CBCL 1½–5), The Infant Toddler Symptom Check List (ITSCL), Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (CHAT), Bayley Scales of Infant Development II (BSID II), The Parent Child Early Relationship Assessment (PC ERA) and Parent Infant Relationship Global Assessment Scale (PIR-GAS). Results: Mental health problems according to International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) and Diagnostic Classification Zero to Three (DC 0–3) diagnoses were found in 16–18% of 1½-year-old children. Most common were disturbances of emotion, behaviour and eating and the DC 0–3 diagnosis of regulatory disorder. Parent–child relationship disturbances were found in 8%. High psychosocial risk was significantly associated with emotional and behavioural disorders (OR 3.1 95% (1.2–8.1)) and disturbed parent–child relationship (OR 5.0 95% (1.6–16.0)). The strongest association of risk was found between relationship disorders and emotional and behavioural disorders (OR 11.6 95% (3.8–37.5)). Conclusions: The prevalence and distribution of psychopathology in 1½-year-old children seem to correspond to the distributions among older children. Disturbances in parent–child relationship have a key position in the risk mechanisms in early child psychopathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The present study was designed to investigate the association between visual exploratory behaviour in early infancy, novelty seeking in adolescence, and the dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) genotype. Methods: Visual attention was measured in 232 three-month-old infants (114 males, 118 females) from a prospective longitudinal study using a habituation–dishabituation paradigm. At age 15 years, the Junior Temperament and Character Inventory (JTCI/12–18) was administered to assess adolescent novelty seeking. DNA was genotyped for the DRD4 exon III polymorphism. Results: Boys with a higher decrement of visual attention during repeated stimulation in infancy displayed significantly higher JTCI novelty seeking at age 15 years. Furthermore, boys carrying the 7r allele of DRD4 exhibited both greater rates of attention decrement in infancy and higher scores on NS in adolescence. In contrast, no association between DRD4, visual attention and novelty seeking was observed in girls. Conclusions: The present investigation provides further evidence supporting a role of DRD4 in novelty seeking during the course of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study investigated the occurrence, cross-informant agreement, 1-year stability, and context characteristics of externalizing behaviors in 12-month-old children, as compared to 24- and 36-month-olds. Method: In a general population sample of 786 12-month-olds, 720 24-month-olds, and 744 36-month-olds, the CBCL/1½–5 was obtained from mothers and fathers and again one year later for a subsample of 307 children. Mothers of 1,831 children also provided complete data on child, mother, and family characteristics. Results: Over three-fourths of the externalizing behaviors occurred in more than 10% of 12-month-olds, over one-third of the items in more than 25%. For almost all externalizing behaviors, the occurrence was significantly lower in 12-month-olds compared to 24- and 36-month-old children. Mother–father agreement and 1-year stability of externalizing behaviors in 12-month-old children were significant, but generally somewhat lower than in 24- and 36-month-olds. Context characteristics were related to externalizing behaviors in 12-month-olds as well as in older children. Some associations were less pronounced in 12-month-old children, but the overall pattern of correlates was similar across age groups. Conclusions: The results of this study show that externalizing behaviors in 12-month-old children merit further research and can be assessed with the CBCL in a valid way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The relationship between the age of reaching infant developmental milestones and later intellectual function within the normal population remains unresolved. We hypothesised that the age of learning to stand in infancy would be associated with adult executive function and that the association would be apparent throughout the range of abilities, rather than confined to extremes. Methods: The Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort is based upon 12,058 live-born children in a geographic and temporally defined population. Information on age at learning to stand without support was obtained at one year. At age 33–35 a random sample of 104 subjects underwent a neuropsychological test battery including tests of executive function (cognitive categorisation), visuo-spatial memory, verbal learning and visual object learning. We investigated associations between developmental data and adult neuropsychological test scores. Results: There was a significant linear relationship between age of learning to stand and adult categorisation: the earlier the attainment of the milestone, the better was the categorisation. No such relationships were observed between infant neurodevelopment and adult cognition in other neuropsychological domains. Conclusion: Even within the normal range of development, early development in the gross motor domain is associated with better adult executive function (in tests of categorisation). Investigation of the determinants and sequelae of normal neural development will facilitate research into a variety of neurodevelopmental disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the importance of parenting for the child's early socio-emotional development, parenting perceptions and behaviours, and their correlates, should be assessed as early as possible in the child's life. The goals of the present study were 1) to confirm, in two parallel population-based samples, including a large sample of twins, the factor structure of a new self-administered questionnaire assessing both parents’ specific parenting perceptions and behaviours toward their 5-month-old infants (i.e., parental self-efficacy, perceived parental impact, parental hostile-reactive behaviours and parental overprotection), 2) to identify the specific risk factors associated with the negative side of these parenting dimensions, 3) to document the genetic-environmental etiology of these parenting dimensions through the twin method.Parents (2,122 mothers and 1,829 fathers) of 5-month-old infants, and parents of 5-month-old infant twins (510 families) completed the questionnaire (28 items). The data were submitted to a series of confirmatory factor analyses. The contribution to parenting of a variety of risk factors was examined in the two samples using regression analyses. A series of quantitative genetic analyses were performed to quantify the different sources of variation in parenting.A consistent factor structure was found across informants and across samples. There were significant mean differences in parenting between mothers and fathers, as well as between parents of twins and parents of singletons. A differentiated pattern of association with risk factors was found for each dimension of parenting. The twin analyses revealed that shared environment accounted for each parenting dimension. Maternal hostile-reactive behaviours were also moderately related to genetic factors in the child and this association was mainly mediated by the infant difficultness.The overall pattern of results was consistent withview of parenting as multiply determined. The longitudinal follow-up of these families should provide the means for testing developmental models about the determinants and outcomes of these parenting dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent investigations suggest that experience plays an important role in the development of face processing. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential role of experience in the development of the ability to process facial expressions of emotion. We examined the potential role of experience indirectly by investigating the relationship between the emotional environment provided by mothers (as indexed by affective measures of their personality) and 7-month-olds’ processing of emotional expressions (as indexed by visual attention and event-related potentials [ERPs]). Forpositive emotion, infants with highly positive mothers looked longer at fearful than happy expressions, and a subset of these infants who themselves also scored highly on positive temperament showed a larger negative central (Nc) component in the ERP to fearful than happy faces. For negative emotion, there were no detectable influences of maternal personality, although very fearful infants showed a larger Nc to fearful than happy expressions over the right hemisphere. To the extent that these variations in maternal disposition reflect variations in their expression of positive facial expressions, these results suggest that the emotional environment experienced by infants contributes to the development of their responses to facial expressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to examine whether a mother's sensitivity towards her one-year-old infant is related to the infant's propensity to engage in ‘triadic’ relations – that is, to orientate to an adult's engagement with objects and events in the world, for example in sharing experiences with an adult. In order to determine that any effects were specific to infants’ behaviour in the interpersonal domain, we also tested their performance on tests of understanding means–ends relations and object permanence. The results were that high maternal sensitivity and low intrusiveness correlated with high levels of infant triadic interpersonal engagement with a stranger vis-à-vis performance on the non-social tasks. There was also suggestive evidence that maternal sensitivity might be related to infants’ propensity to share experiences with the mother. Exploratory analyses revealed that these findings held up when the effects of maternal socio-economic status and ethnic group were taken into account; and there was some indication that the effects of maternal intrusiveness on infant profiles of performance were more marked for mothers who did not have a partner. There is a specific relation between maternal sensitivity and one-year-old infants’ propensity to engage with someone else in relation to the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]