Grant description:

Research indicates joint attention impairment is pathognomonic of autism, predicts cognitive and social outcomes in these children, and may be an index of neurodevelopmental components of the disorder. Consequently, joint attention has become an important dimension to consider in treatment research. However, current assessment and diagnostic tools lack the efficiency and precision necessary to measure joint attention development in intervention studies. Furthermore, because these skills can be low-frequency, context-specific behaviors in children with autism, the combination of both direct observations and parent or professional report data may be necessary to provide a reliable and valid assessment of this critical domain of social development. To this end we will develop and test the efficacy of the Early Social Communication Scales Live (ESCS-L), a live coding quantitative assessment of social communication skills, and the Pictorial Infant Communication Scale (PICS), a sixteen item measure employing both pictorial and written descriptions of critical behaviors to improve the reliability and validity of informant responses. The psychometric properties of this measurement system will be assessed in an 8-week longitudinal study of 40 children with autism and 20 comparison children. It is expected this research will lead to the development of a system of efficient quantitative measures of a critical domain of social development that will enable researchers to better monitor the growth development and treatment response of children with autism.

Funded in Partnership with Repligen Corporation