The Typical Developmental Order of Social-cognitive Behaviors in Toddlers

Background: Delays and deficits in social-cognitive behaviors such as imitation, joint attention and pretend play are important developmental problems that emerge from infancy with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).  A comprehensive examination of the developmental course of social-cognitive behaviors in the general population will be useful to compare with those of children with ASD.

Objectives: Our study aimed to verify the normal developmental order of social-cognitive behaviors in the general population at around of 1 year of age.

Methods: The Japanese version of the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT), a questionnaire composed of 23 items out of which 16 concerned with social-cognitive behavior, was completed by the volunteer parents of 318 non-selected children aged 8-20 months (168 boys and 150 girls; mean age = 13±3 months) with reference to the child’s current behavior.  We determined the month of age of the target children showing the positive answer for each of the 16 socio-cognitive behavior items with the pass rate of 75% or over.

Results: Enjoying being swung, interest in other children, enjoying peek-a-boo/hide-and-seek, eye contact, responsive social smile, and response to be named before 8-months-old, imitation and trying to attract attention at 11- months-old, point-following, imperative pointing, declarative pointing and pretend play at 12-months-old, showing, gaze-following and social reference at 15-months-old, functional play at 17-months-old in developmental order.

Conclusions: The results revealed the typical developmental order of social-cognitive behaviors observable in toddlers.  Based on this, we may be able to determine which developmental trajectories children with ASD would follow.  This could provide us with useful information about when and to whom we should start intervention.  Sponsor: RISTEX (Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society)