International Meeting for Autism Research (London, May 15-17, 2008): Early signs of autism spectrum disorder in infancy and early childhood in a community sample of Australian children
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Early signs of autism spectrum disorder in infancy and early childhood in a community sample of Australian children

Friday, May 16, 2008
Champagne Terrace/Bordeaux (Novotel London West)
11:30 AM
M. R. Prior , Psychology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
C. Veness , Speech Pathology, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
E. L. Bavin , Psychology, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
E. Patricia , Speech pathology, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
C. Eileen , Speech pathology, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
R. Sheena , Speech pathology, Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia
Background: From within a large, longitudinal community study of the natural history of language development - the Early Language in Victoria Study (ELVS) (N = 1911), a group of 18 children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) by 4 years of age was identified. The developmental histories of these children could be compared with groups within the sample with Developmental Disorder, Specific Language Disorder, and typical development. Objectives: To investigate early and specific developmental ‘red flags’ in social and communication domains from 8 to 48 months which are predictive of ASD. Methods: The Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (Wetherby & Prizant 2002) and the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (Fenson et al., 1993) covering early communicative behaviours, gesture production, speech sound and vocabulary development, and functional and symbolic play behaviours, were used at 8, 12, and 24 months of age. Results: Group comparisons were made across early social, symbolic, and language domains to identify differences from normally developing children and to establish whether any of these were specific to ASD at any age. Using those measures which differentiated between groups, predictive analyses to four year old diagnostic status was used to assess the capacity to reliably identify children at risk the three age points Conclusions: Data analyses are ongoing at this stage; results will be discussed in light of current research and practice in the early identification of ASD and the limits of specificity and predictive power of early markers of the disorder. Fenson, L., Dale, P. et al. (1993). The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories: Users guide and technical manual. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co Wetherby, A., & Prizant, B. (2002). CSBS DP Manual: Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales Developmental Profile, First Normed Edition. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
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