Early gestural development in high-risk infants and its value on early detection of ASD

Abstract Background Gesture deficit has been reported in some later-born siblings of children with ASD (HR infants). Careful observation of gesture development in the first two years of HR infants provides behavioral indicators of ASD's early detection. Methods This study enrolled 46 HR infants and 27 infants as a control group to explore HR infants' atypical developmental trajectories of gestures and gestures' predictive value of ASD's early detection. We evaluated gestures during 9–19 months. We conduct Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule assessment at 18–19 months. Results The HR group's developmental speed of JA gestures was lower than that of the LR group, and the trajectories of the two groups began to diverge at 14–18 months. Infants who reached the cutoff point for ASD showed insufficient gesture integrated with eye contact(G-E gestures), insufficient gesture integrated with any two communication skills(G-M gestures) at 15–16 months, and insufficient overall gestures, insufficient G-E gestures at 18–19 months. Conclusions The developmental trajectories of JA gestures of HR infants were different from LR infants. Overall gestures, G-E gestures, and G-M gestures were potential indicators of ASD's early detection. Clinical Trial Registration: www.ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier ChiCTR1900020791.