Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
Department of Psychological Sciences, Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck, University of London, London, UK.
Autism Res. 2023 Nov;16(11):2184-2197. doi: 10.1002/aur.3023. Epub 2023 Sep 12.
Slower acquisition of language and motor milestones are common in infants with later autism and studies have indicated that motor skills predict the rate of language development, suggesting these domains of development may be interlinked. However, the inter-relationships between the two domains over development and emerging autistic traits are not fully established. We studied language and motor development using standardized observational and parent-report measures in infants with (n = 271) and without (n = 137) a family history of autism across four waves of data collection from 10 to 36 months. We used Random Intercept Cross-Lagged Panel Models to examine contemporaneous and longitudinal associations between language and motor developments in both elevated and typical likelihood groups. We estimated paths between language and motor abilities at 10, 14, 24, and 36 months and autism trait scores at 36 months, to test whether the domains were interrelated and how they related to emerging autism traits. Results revealed consistent bidirectional Expressive Language (EL) and Fine Motor (FM) cross-lagged effects from 10 to 24 and a unidirectional EL to FM effect from 24 to 36 months as well as significantly correlated random intercepts between Gross motor (GM) and Receptive language (RL), indicating stable concurrent associations over time. However, only the associations between GM and RL were associated with later autism traits. Early motor and language are linked, but only gross motor and receptive language are jointly associated with autistic traits in infants with an autism family history.
语言和运动技能里程碑的获得较慢在有后期自闭症的婴儿中很常见，研究表明运动技能可以预测语言发展的速度，这表明这两个发展领域可能是相互关联的。然而，这两个领域在发展过程中以及在新出现的自闭症特征之间的相互关系尚未完全确定。我们使用标准化的观察和家长报告测量方法，在有（n=271）和没有（n=137）自闭症家族史的婴儿中研究了语言和运动发展，这些婴儿在从 10 到 36 个月的四个数据收集阶段都接受了研究。我们使用随机截距交叉滞后面板模型来检查在高可能性和典型可能性组中语言和运动发展的同期和纵向关联。我们估计了语言和运动能力在 10、14、24 和 36 个月之间的路径，以及在 36 个月时的自闭症特征评分，以测试这两个领域是否相互关联以及它们与新出现的自闭症特征有何关联。结果显示，从 10 到 24 个月，表达性语言（EL）和精细运动（FM）之间存在一致的双向交叉滞后效应，从 24 到 36 个月存在单向 EL 到 FM 效应，以及 GM 和 RL 之间显著相关的随机截距，这表明在时间上存在稳定的并发关联。然而，只有 GM 和 RL 之间的关联与后来的自闭症特征有关。早期的运动和语言是相关的，但只有粗大运动和接受性语言与有自闭症家族史的婴儿的自闭症特征有关。
