Overt Head Turning During Contingency Learning and Gross Motor Performance of Young Infants at Risk for Autism

Background: Postural control and attentional impairments are common in children with autism (Ozonoff et al., 2008; Zwaigenbaum et al., 2005). Few studies have examined the relationship between postural and attentional impairments in autism. Both these systems develop rapidly within the first year of life and may interact and influence each other. Objectives: In order to better understand such multisystem interactions, we compared overt head turning and gross motor performance in infant siblings of children with autism (AU sibs) and typically developing (TD) infants at 6 months of age. Methods: 25 AU sibs and 25 TD infants were observed in a novel associative learning task at 6 months. The Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS) was also administered at 6 months. Learning task data were coded for frequency of overt head turning while looking to non-social cues such as objects or other and social cues such as the caregiver. A sum of prone and sit scores from the AIMS was used as a postural control measure. Results: AU sibs showed lower total head turn rates as compared to TD infants (p<0.05). Specifically, they performed significantly fewer head turns to social as well as non-social cues as compared to TD infants. Lastly, the postural control measure based on AIMS scores was significantly lower in AU sibs than TD infants (p<0.05). Conclusions: AU sibs who lacked overt head turning also showed poor postural control as compared to a group of TD infants. Together, these findings suggest that motor constraints such as poor postural control may contribute to the atypical/covert attention patterns of AU sibs. Lastly, these data also suggest that motor as well as attentional impairments may be the earliest markers of developmental disruptions related to autism.