Research by Topic: Baby Sibs

ASF renews grant to expand Baby Sibs research

Published July 2, 2018

ASF is proud to announce continued support for the Baby Siblings Research Consortium (BSRC), a network of over 33 research sites around the world studying the younger siblings of people with autism. The Baby Sibs database now tracks over 5,000 younger siblings, with and without autism. The database has been used to develop more sophisticated […]

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Agreement on the value of early autism research

Published March 24, 2016

Studies of very early signs of autism has led to better recognition of early signs and driven earlier and earlier interventions.  These interventions have improved the lives of people with autism.  These early autism symptoms are seen before a diagnosis can be made.   Biological signs of autism before a diagnosis could even further improve early intervention. […]

http://asfpodcast.org/?p=166

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Diagnostic Stability in Young Children at Risk for ASD: A Baby Siblings Research Consortium Study

Published April 29, 2015 in Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

While stability of an autism diagnosis is high at 18 months, symptoms emerge and evolve over time and many may not be reach a diagnostic threshold until 3 years. Therefore, concerned parents need to continue screening and evaluations through 3 years of age. A new baby siblings research consortium study examined the stability of diagnosis in over 400 at-risk infants.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25921776

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Siblings of Children with Autism can Show Signs at 18 Months

Published October 14, 2014 in Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

About 20% of younger siblings of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) will develop the condition by age 3. A new study by Yale School of Medicine researchers has found that 57% of these younger siblings who later develop the condition already showed symptoms at age 18 months. Published in the October Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, this is the first large-scale, multi-site study aimed at identifying specific social-communicative behaviors that distinguish infants with ASD from their typically and atypically developing high-risk peers as early as 18 months of age.

http://www.jaacap.com/article/S0890-8567(14)00692-3/fulltext

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Infants with Autism Smile Less at 1 Year of Age

Published September 12, 2014 in Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative

A new study reports that by the time they turn 1, infants who are later diagnosed with autism smile less often than those who do not develop the disorder. That suggests that reduced smiling may be an early risk marker for the disorder. In the study, published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, researchers examined 22 typically developing infants with no family history of autism and 44 infant siblings of children with the disorder. These so-called baby sibs have an increased risk for autism. In the new study, half of the 44 baby sibs later developed autism. The results of this study are important because clinicians often struggle to identify those baby sibs who will later develop autism versus those who may display autism-like traits but wont develop the disorder.

http://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/blog/2014/infants-with-autism-smile-less-at-1-year-of-age

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Positive Affect in Infant Siblings of Children Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Published August 13, 2014 in Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology

In a study published this week, Canadian infant sibs researchers examined very early symptoms in infants at risk for ASD. These are infants who have an older sibling affected with ASD and show a 1/5 recurrence rate. Meaning instead of 1/68, these kids have a 1/5 chance of having ASD. Because they were able to follow them over time, they assessed them carefully as they grew up. In this study, they were focused on smiling and affect. They showed that infants at risk for ASD that went on to get an ASD diagnosis didnt smile as much at 12-18 months of age. This is consistent with previous red flags of no warm joyful smiles but takes it a step farther and shows the duration and number of smiles is fewer in kids with ASD. Researchers are going to use this to improve the early signs and symptoms of autism and develop more targeted interventions for the early stages of ASD.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25117578

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Autism Symptoms Change Over Time

Published October 1, 2013 in Simons Foundation Autism Research Institute

Siblings of children with autism who are later diagnosed with the disorder themselves become more active, less adaptable and less likely to approach others over time, according to a study published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. The results reinforce the observation that autism symptoms evolve as children age, the researchers say.

http://sfari.org/news-and-opinion/in-brief/2013/cognition-and-behavior-autism-symptoms-change-over-time

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Recurrence of Autism Spectrum Disorders in Full- and Half-Siblings and Trends Over Time

Published August 22, 2013 in JAMA Pediatrics

Children who have an older sibling with autism are seven times more likely than other kids to be diagnosed with autism themselves, according to a new study from Denmark. A higher-than-average risk was also detected for children who have a half-sibling with ASD, especially if the two children had the same mother.

http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1728998

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Beyond Autism: A Baby Siblings Research Consortium Study of High-risk Children at Three Years of Age

Published February 8, 2013 in Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

This study is the first large-scale examination of ASD behavioral characteristics and developmental functioning in high-risk (HR), non-autistic 3-year-olds with siblings on the spectrum. 79% of HR children were either no different from low-risk children (LR; no known ASD family history) with respect to ASD behavioral severity and developmental functioning, or were developmentally on target with high levels of ASD-related behaviors. 21% of HR children with no ASD diagnosis had an “early manifestation” of a broad autism phenotype: high levels of ASD-related behaviors and/or low levels of verbal and nonverbal functioning. The authors highlight the importance of developmental surveillance and intervention for this HR subset.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23452686

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Object Exploration at 6 and 9 Months in Infants with and without Risk for Autism

Published November 22, 2012 in Autism

Co-authored by ASF grantee Nina Leezenbaum, this study found delayed visual and oral exploration of objects in infant siblings of children with autism that were not observed in infants with no family history.

http://aut.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/11/20/1362361312464826

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The Development of Referential Communication and Autism Symptomatology in High-Risk Infants

Published October 1, 2012 in Infancy

This study suggests that non-verbal communication delays in infants with autistic siblings can predict later ASD symptoms.For a Science Daily article on this paper, click here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121001124802.htm

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1532-7078.2012.00142.x/abstract

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Differences in White Matter Fiber Tract Development Present from 6 to 24 Months in Infants with Autism.

Published June 1, 2012 in American Journal of Psychiatry

Research suggests that aberrant development of white matter pathways may precede the manifestation of autistic symptoms in the first year of life.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22362397

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IACC Releases Its 2011 Summary of Advances in Autism Spectrum Disorder Research

Published April 2, 2012 in IACC

On April 2, in honor of the fifth annual World Autism Awareness Day and HHS Autism Awareness Month the IACC has released its annual list of scientific advances that represent significant progress in the field.

IACC Releases Its 2011 Summary of Advances in Autism Spectrum Disorder Research

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Recurrence Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Baby Siblings Research Consortium Study

Published August 1, 2011 in Pediatrics, Ozonoff et al.

A study published August 15, 2011 in the journal Pediatrics found that infants with an older autistic sibling have a near 19 percent risk that they too will develop the disorder. The study is considered the largest autism study to follow infants for sibling recurrence.

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/08/11/peds.2010-2825.abstract

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Autism Risk Linked To Space Between First And Second Pregnancy

Published January 10, 2011 in Medical News Today

A second child is three times more likely to be diagnosed with autism if they are born within twelve months of their siblings, compared to those born three or more years apart, researchers from the Lazarsfeld Center for the Social Sciences at Columbia University, New York revealed in the journal Pediatrics. The investigators gathered information on 660,000 second children born in California between 1992 to 2002.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/213245.php

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Neural Signatures of Autism

Published December 1, 2010 in PNAS, Kaiser, Hudack, Schultz, Lee, Cheung, Berken, Deen, Pitskel, Sugrue, Voos, Saulnier, Ventola, Wolf, Klin, Vander Wyk, Pelphrey

These findings of this study hold far-reaching implications for our understanding of the neural systems underlying autism. Using FMRI to record the biological motion of children with autism spectrum disorder, unaffected siblings of children with ASD, and typically developing children, the study reveals three types of neural signatures: The study finds distinct brain responses to […]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21078973

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Siblings of Autistic Children May Have Some Autism Related Traits, Study Says

Published October 11, 2010 in LA Times

Scientists at the Washington University School of Medicine have uncovered more evidence of a genetic basis for autism. Reviewing surveys collected from more than 1,000 families with autistic kids, they discovered that siblings of autistic children who have not been diagnosed with the disease often exhibit mild traits of autism, including speech delays.

http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-autism-20101011,0,976254.story

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Infants Gaze May Be an Early, but Subtle, Marker for Autism Risk

Published September 1, 2010 in Science Daily

Kennedy Krieger Institute have announced new study results showing an early marker for later communication and social delays in infants at a higher-risk for autism may be infrequent gazing at other people when unprompted. The study also found that six-month-old high-risk infants demonstrated the same level of cause and effect learning skills when compared to low-risk infants of the same age.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100901111628.htm

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Autism’s Earliest Symptoms Not Evident in Children Under 6 Months

Published February 16, 2010 in Science Daily

A study of the development of autism in infants, comparing the behavior of the siblings of children diagnosed with autism to that of babies developing normally, has found that the nascent symptoms of the condition — a lack of shared eye contact, smiling and communicative babbling — are not present at 6 months, but emerge gradually and only become apparent during the latter part of the first year of life.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100216091009.htm

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Structural Variation of Chromosomes in Autism Spectrum Disorder

Published February 28, 2008 in American Journal of Human Genetics, Marshall, Noor, et al

Structural variation (copy number variation [CNV] including deletion and duplication, translocation, inversion) of chromosomes has been identified in some individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the full etiologic role is unknown. We performed genome-wide assessment for structural abnormalities in 427 unrelated ASD cases via single-nucleotide polymorphism microarrays and karyotyping. With microarrays, we discovered 277 […]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18252227

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