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FPG Study on Infants With Autism Picks Up Award

FPG Study on Infants With Autism Picks Up Award

October 27, 2014

FPG fellows Linda Watson, Elizabeth Crais, and Grace Baranek, along with FPG investigator Jessica Dykstra and co-author Kaitlyn Wilson, have received the 2013 Editor’s Award from the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. Their seminal article "Communicative Gesture Use in Infants With and Without Autism: A Retrospective Home Video Study" compared the use of gestures in infants with autism to infants with other developmental disabilities or with typical development.

By viewing videos, researchers determined that at 9-12 months infants with autism were less likely to use joint attention gestures than infants with other developmental disabilities or typical development. At this age, infants with autism also were less likely to use behavior regulation gestures than were children with typical development.

At 15-18 months, infants with autism were less likely than infants with developmental disabilities to use social interaction or joint attention gestures, and less likely than infants with typical development to use behavior regulation, social interaction, or joint attention gestures.

The authors concluded “differences in gesture use in infancy have implications for early autism screening, assessment, and intervention."

Abstract and link to full article

Citation: Watson, L. R., Crais, E. R., Baranek, G. T., Dykstra, J. R., & Wilson, K. P. (2013). Communicative gesture use in infants with and without autism: A retrospective home video study. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 22, 25-39.

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