Moerman Floor, Warreyn Petra, Noens Ilse, Steyaert Jean, van Esch Lotte, de Vries Lyssa, Madarevic Melinda, Segers Julie, Van Lierde Thijs, Roeyers Herbert
Research in Developmental Diversity Lab (RIDDL) UGent, Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Leuven Autism Research (LAuRes), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
Infancy. 2025 Jan-Feb;30(1):e12625. doi: 10.1111/infa.12625. Epub 2024 Oct 9.
This study investigated the association between Sensory processing (SP) (i.e., hyporesponsiveness, Sensory Seeking (SS) and hyperresponsiveness) at 10 months (M) and language/social-communicative difficulties at 24M, mediated through object play at 14M in young children at elevated likelihood for autism (EL). Parent-report instruments were used to measure all variables in younger siblings of children with autism (siblings, n = 74) and children born before 30 gestational weeks (preterms, n = 38). Higher scores of object play fully mediated the association between more SS and better language/less social-communicative difficulties. Hypo- and hyperresponsiveness at 10M did not seem to predict language heterogeneity at 24M, but more hypo- and less hyperresponsiveness at 10M were associated with more social-communicative difficulties at 24M. The explained variance in social-communicative difficulties and language was limited (15.25%-16.39%). Similar associations were found for siblings and preterms. This highlights that high frequency of SP behaviors does not necessarily negatively affect communication in young EL-children as is commonly assumed. Early object play skills play a role in the association between early SS and later language/social communicative difficulties. This implies that some criteria of the two core domains of characteristics of autism are interrelated in EL-children, and this may have implications for early intervention programs.
本研究调查了10个月大时的感觉加工（SP）（即反应低下、感觉寻求（SS）和反应过度）与24个月大时的语言/社会沟通困难之间的关联，该关联通过14个月大时的客体游戏进行中介，研究对象为自闭症患病风险较高的幼儿（EL）。采用家长报告工具测量自闭症儿童的弟弟妹妹（兄弟姐妹组，n = 74）和孕30周前出生的儿童（早产儿组，n = 38）这两组幼儿的所有变量。客体游戏得分较高完全中介了较多的感觉寻求与较好的语言能力/较少的社会沟通困难之间的关联。10个月大时的反应低下和反应过度似乎并不能预测24个月大时的语言差异，但10个月大时较多的反应低下和较少的反应过度与24个月大时较多的社会沟通困难相关。社会沟通困难和语言方面的解释方差有限（15.25%-16.39%）。在兄弟姐妹组和早产儿组中发现了类似的关联。这突出表明，感觉加工行为的高频率并不一定会像通常所认为的那样对EL幼儿的沟通产生负面影响。早期客体游戏技能在早期感觉寻求与后期语言/社会沟通困难之间的关联中发挥作用。这意味着自闭症特征两个核心领域的一些标准在EL幼儿中是相互关联的，这可能对早期干预项目有影响。
