Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T04:02:48.410Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hyporesponsiveness to social and nonsocial sensory stimuli in children with autism, children with developmental delays, and typically developing children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2013

Grace T. Baranek ,
Linda R. Watson ,
Brian A. Boyd ,
Michele D. Poe ,
Fabian J. David  and
Lorin McGuire
Grace T. Baranek*
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Linda R. Watson
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Brian A. Boyd
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Michele D. Poe
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Fabian J. David
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Lorin McGuire
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Grace T. Baranek, Division of Occupational Science (CB 7122), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7122; E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This cross-sectional study seeks to (a) describe developmental correlates of sensory hyporesponsiveness to social and nonsocial stimuli, (b) determine whether hyporesponsiveness is generalized across contexts in children with autism relative to controls, and (c) test the associations between hyporesponsiveness and social communication outcomes. Three groups of children ages 11–105 months (N = 178; autism = 63, developmental delay = 47, typical development = 68) are given developmental and sensory measures including a behavioral orienting task (the Sensory Processing Assessment). Lab measures are significantly correlated with parental reports of sensory hyporesponsiveness. Censored regression models show that hyporesponsiveness decreased across groups with increasing mental age (MA). Group differences are significant but depend upon two-way interactions with MA and context (social and nonsocial). At a very young MA (e.g., 6 months), the autism group demonstrates more hyporesponsiveness to social and nonsocial stimuli (with larger effects for social) than developmental delay and typically developing groups, but at an older MA (e.g., 60 months) there are no significant differences. Hyporesponsiveness to social and nonsocial stimuli predicts lower levels of joint attention and language in children with autism. Generalized processes in attention disengagement and behavioral orienting may have relevance for identifying early risk factors of autism and for facilitating learning across contexts to support the development of joint attention and language.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , May 2013 , pp. 307 - 320
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baranek, G. T. (1999a). Autism during infancy: A retrospective video analysis of sensory-motor and social behaviors at 9–12 months of age. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 29, 213–224.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baranek, G. T. (1999b). Sensory Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ). Unpublished manuscript, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Baranek, G. T. (1999c). Sensory Processing Assessment for Young Children (SPA). Unpublished manuscript, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.Google Scholar
Baranek, G. T., David, F. J., Poe, M. D., Stone, W. L., & Watson, L. R. (2006). Sensory Experiences Questionnaire: Discriminating sensory features in young children with autism, developmental delays, and typical development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 47, 591–601.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baranek, G. T., Roberts, J. E., David, F. J., Sideris, J., Mirrett, P. L., Hatton, D. D., et al. (2008). Developmental trajectories and correlates of sensory processing functions in young boys with fragile X syndrome. Physical and Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics, 28, 79–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayley, N. (1993). Bayley Scales of Infant Development—Second edition (BSID-II). San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Belmonte, M. K., Allen, G., Beckel-Mitchener, A., Boulanger, L. M., Carper, R. A., & Webb, S. J. (2004). Autism and abnormal development of brain connectivity. Journal of Neuroscience, 24, 9228–9231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ben-Sasson, A., Hen, L., Fluss, R., Cermak, S. A., Engel-Yeger, B., & Gal, E. (2009). A meta-analysis of sensory modulation symptoms in individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39, 1–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bjorne, P., Johansson, B., & Balkenius, C. (2006). Effects of early sensorimotor disorder on contextual learning in autism. Revue Européenne de Psychologie Appliqué, 56, 247–252.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boyd, B. A., Baranek, G. T., Sideris, J., Poe, M. D., Watson, L. R., Patten, E., et al. (2010). Sensory features and repetitive behaviors in children with autism and developmental delays. Autism Research, 3, 78–87.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brady, N. C., Steeples, T., & Fleming, K. (2005). Effects of prelinguistic communication levels on initiation and repair of communication in children with disabilities. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 48, 1098–1113.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dahlgren, S. O., & Gillberg, C. (1989). Symptoms in the first two years of life: A preliminary population study of infantile autism. European Archives of Psychology and Neurological Sciences, 238, 169–174.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dawson, G., Meltzoff, A. N., Osterling, J., Rinaldi, J., & Brown, E. (1998). Children with autism fail to orient to naturally occurring social stimuli. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 28, 479–485.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dawson, G., Toth, K., Abbott, R., Osterling, J., Munson, J., Estes, A., et al. (2004). Early social attention impairments in autism: Social orienting, joint attention, and attention to distress. Developmental Psychology, 40, 271–283.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Farroni, T., Simion, F., Umiltà, C., & Barba, B. D. (1999). The gap effect in newborns. Developmental Science, 2, 174–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gage, N., Siegel, B., & Roberts, T. (2003). Cortical auditory system maturational abnormalities in children with autism disorder: An MEG investigation. Developmental Brain Research, 144, 201–210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gotham, K., Risi, S., Pickles, A., & Lord, C. (2007). The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS): Revised algorithms for improved diagnostic validity. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 613–627.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grandin, T. (1996). Emergence: Labeled autistic. New York: Warner Books.Google Scholar
Greenspan, S., & Wieder, S. (1997). Developmental patterns and outcomes in infants and children with disorders in relating and communicating: A chart review of 200 cases of children with autistic spectrum diagnoses. Journal of Developmental and Learning Disorders, 1, 87–141.Google Scholar
Harris, N. S., Courchesne, E., Townsend, J., Carper, R. A., & Lord, C. (1999). Neuroanatomic contributions to slowed orienting of attention in children with autism. Cognitive Brain Research, 8, 61–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, C. (1991). Without reason: A family copes with two generations of autism. New York: NAL.Google Scholar
Hirstein, W., Iversen, P., & Ramachandran, V. S. (2001). Autonomic responses of autistic children to people and objects. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Biological Sciences, 268, 1883–1888.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hunnius, S., & Geuze, R. H. (2004). Gaze shifting in infancy: A longitudinal study using dynamic faces and abstract stimuli. Infant Behavior and Development, 27, 397–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurwitz, S. (2010). Joint attention revisited: Examining heterogeneity among children with autism. Dissertation Abstracts International, 71 (08) (Publication No. AAT 3409920).Google Scholar
Johnson, M. H. (1990). Cortical maturation and the development of visual attention in early infancy. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2, 81–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jones, R. S. P., Quigney, C., & Huws, J. C. (2003). Firsthand accounts of sensory perceptual experiences in autism: A qualitative analysis. Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability, 28, 112–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kientz, M. A., & Dunn, W. (1997). A comparison of the performance of children with and without autism on the Sensory Profile. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 51, 530–537.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Landa, R. J., Holman, K. C., & Garrett-Mayer, E. (2007). Social and communication development in toddlers with early and later diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders. Archives of General Psychiatry, 64, 853–864.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lane, A. E., Young, R. L., Baker, A. E. Z., & Angley, M. T. (2010). Sensory processing subtypes in autism: Association with adaptive behavior. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 40, 112–122.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leekam, S. R., Hunnisett, E., & Moore, C. (1998). Targets and cues: Gaze-following in children with autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 39, 951–962.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leekam, S. R., Nieto, C., Libby, S. J., Wing, L., & Gould, J. (2007). Describing the sensory abnormalities of children and adults with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 894–910.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leekam, S. R., & Ramsden, C. A. (2006). Dyadic orienting and joint attention in preschool children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 36, 185–197.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Liss, M., Saulnier, C., Fein, D., & Kinsbourne, M. (2006). Sensory and attention abnormalities in autistic spectrum disorders. Autism, 10, 155–172.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Little, L., Freuler, A., Houser, M. B., Guckian, L., Carbine, K., David, F. J., et al. (2011). Brief report: Psychometric validation of the Sensory Experiences Questionnaire. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 65, 207–210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lord, C., Rutter, M., DiLavore, P., & Risi, S. (1999). The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.Google Scholar
Lord, C., Rutter, M., & Le Couteur, A. (1994). Autism Diagnostic Interview–Revised: A revised version of a diagnostic interview for caregivers of individuals with possible pervasive developmental disorders. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 24, 659–685.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Macaluso, E., Frith, C. D., & Driver, J. (2001). Multimodal mechanisms of attention related to rates of spatial shifting in vision and touch. Experimental Brain Research, 137, 445–454.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, L. J., Anzalone, M. E., Lane, S. J., Cermak, S. A., & Osten, E. T. (2007). Concept evolution in sensory integration: A proposed nosology for diagnosis. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 61, 135–140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, L. J., Reisman, J. E., McIntosh, D. N., & Simon, J. (2001). An ecological model of sensory modulation: Performance of children with fragile X syndrome, autistic disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and sensory modulation dysfunction. In Smith-Roley, S., Blanche, E. I., & Schaaf, R. C. (Eds.), Understanding the nature of sensory integration with diverse populations (pp. 57–88). San Antonio, TX: Therapy Skill Builders.Google Scholar
Minshew, N. J., & Hobson, J. A. (2008). Sensory sensitivities and performance on sensory perceptual tasks in high-functioning individuals with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38, 1485–1498.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mullen, E. M. (1995). Mullen Scales of Early Learning (AGS Edition). Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.Google Scholar
Mundy, P. (2011). The social behavior of autism: A parallel and distributed information processing perspective. In Amaral, D. G., Dawson, G., & Geschwind, D. H. (Eds.), Autism spectrum disorders (pp. 149–171). New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mundy, P., Delgado, C., Block, J., Venezia, M., Hogan, A., & Seibert, J. (2003). A manual for the abridged Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS). Coral Gables, FL: University of Miami, Department of Psychology.Google Scholar
Mundy, P., & Jarrold, W. (2010). Infant joint attention, neural networks and social cognition. Neural Networks, 23, 985–997.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mundy, P., & Neal, R. (2001). Neural plasticity, joint attention, and a transactional social-orienting model of autism. In Glidden, L. M. (Ed.), International review of research in mental retardation: Vol. 23. Autism (pp. 139–168). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Mundy, P., & Newell, L. (2007). Attention, joint attention and social cognition. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 269–274.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nadig, A. S., Ozonoff, S., Young, G. S., Rozga, A., Sigman, M., & Rogers, S. J. (2007). A prospective study of response to name in infants at risk for autism. Journal of Pediatrics, 161, 378–383.Google ScholarPubMed
O'Neill, M., & Jones, R. S. (1997). Sensory-perceptual abnormalities in autism: A case for more research? Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 27, 283–293.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Posner, M. I., & Rothbart, M. K. (2007). Research on attention networks as a model for the integration of psychological science. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 1–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, S. J., & Ozonoff, S. (2005). Annotation: What do we know about sensory dysfunction in autism? A critical review of the empirical evidence. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46, 1255–1268.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roid, G. H., & Miller, L. J. (1997). Leiter International Performance Scale Revised. Wood Dale, IL: Stoelting.Google Scholar
Rothbart, M. K., Posner, M. I., & Rosicky, J. (1994). Orienting in normal and pathological development. Development and Psychopathology, 6, 635–652.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, M. L., Moore, C. F., Gajewski, L. L., Larson, J. A., Roberts, A. D., & Converse, A. K. (2008). Sensory processing disorder in a primate model: Evidence from a longitudinal study of prenatal alcohol and prenatal stress effects. Child Development, 79, 100–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schopler, E., Reichler, R. J., & Renner, B. R. (1986). The Childhood Autism Rating Scale. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.Google Scholar
Sigman, M., & Ruskin, E. (1999). Continuity and change in the social competence of children with autism, Down syndrome, and developmental delays. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 64, 1–114.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Siller, M., & Sigman, M. (2008). Modeling longitudinal change in the language abilities of children with autism: Parent behaviors and child characteristics as predictors of change. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1691–1704.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sparrow, S., Balla, D., & Cicchetti, D. (1984). Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Stata Press. (2007). Longitudinal/Panel—Data Reference Manual: Release 10. College Station, TX: Author.Google Scholar
Stone, W. L., Ousley, O. Y., Yoder, P. J., Hogan, K. L., & Hepburn, S. L. (1997). Nonverbal communication in two- and three-year-old children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 27, 677–696.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swettenham, J., Baron-Cohen, S., Charman, T., Cox, A., Baird, G., Drew, A., et al. (1998). The frequency and distribution of spontaneous attention shifts between social and nonsocial stimuli in autistic, typically developing, and nonautistic developmentally delayed infants. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 39, 747–753.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Talay-Ongan, A., & Wood, K. (2000). Unusual sensory sensitivities in autism: A possible crossroads. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 47, 201–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tommerdahl, M., Tannan, V., Holden, J. K., & Baranek, G. T. (2008). Absence of stimulus-driven synchronization effects on sensory perception in autism: Evidence for local underconnectivity? Behavioral and Brain Functions, 4, 19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Townsend, J., Courchesne, E., Covington, J., Westerfield, M., Harris, N. S., Lyden, P., et al. (1999). Spatial attention deficits in patients with acquired or developmental cerebellar abnormality. Journal of Neuroscience, 19, 5632–5643.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Uhlhaas, P. J., & Singer, W. (2006). Neural synchrony in brain disorders: Relevance for cognitive dysfunctions and pathophysiology. Neuron, 52, 155–168.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Watling, R. L., Deitz, J., & White, O. (2001). Comparison of Sensory Profile scores of young children with and without autism spectrum disorders. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 55, 416–423.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wetherby, A. M., Watt, N., Morgan, L., & Shumway, S. (2007). Social communication profiles of children with autism spectrum disorders late in the second year of life. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 37, 960–975.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zimmerman, I. L., Steiner, V. G., & Pond, R. E. (2002). Preschool Language Scale, Fourth Edition (PLS-4). San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.Google Scholar
Zwaigenbaum, L., Bryson, S., Rogers, T., Roberts, W., Brian, J., & Szatmari, P. (2005). Behavioral manifestations of autism in the first year of life. International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience, 23, 143–152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed