This project will identify the precursors, correlates, and consequences of social and communicative skills in children wit autism. The first study will specify the characteristics of the home and school environment that are associated with communication and language skills in very young children with autism and are predictive of their gains in these skills over the course of a year. The central hypothesis to be tested is that, while autism is caused by biological determinants, environmental factors contribute to those social communication skills, which crucially determine the later development of children with autism. A more specific hypothesis to be examined is that the optimal development of children with autism requires both responsive caregiving and the provision of structured experiences. The identification of environmental correlates of social communication skills is crucial for the planning of interventions. The second study continues the longitudinal follow-up of a sample of 51 children with autism who were tested at 3-5 years of age as well as one and eight years later. The objectives of this follow-up are to chart the course of the disorder into the period of late adolescence and early adulthood and determine the consequences of earlier individual differences for later communicative, social, and adaptive abilities.

Project Start
1999-02-16
Project End
1999-05-31
Budget Start
1997-10-01
Budget End
1998-09-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
1999
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California Los Angeles
Department
Type
DUNS #
119132785
City
Los Angeles
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
90095
Freeman, Stephanny F N; Gulsrud, Amanda; Kasari, Connie (2015) Brief Report: Linking Early Joint Attention and Play Abilities to Later Reports of Friendships for Children with ASD. J Autism Dev Disord 45:2259-66
Siller, Michael; Swanson, Meghan; Gerber, Alan et al. (2014) A parent-mediated intervention that targets responsive parental behaviors increases attachment behaviors in children with ASD: results from a randomized clinical trial. J Autism Dev Disord 44:1720-32
Gulsrud, Amanda C; Hellemann, Gerhard S; Freeman, Stephanny F N et al. (2014) Two to ten years: developmental trajectories of joint attention in children with ASD who received targeted social communication interventions. Autism Res 7:207-15
Siller, Michael; Hutman, Ted; Sigman, Marian (2013) A parent-mediated intervention to increase responsive parental behaviors and child communication in children with ASD: a randomized clinical trial. J Autism Dev Disord 43:540-55
Lawton, Kathy; Kasari, Connie (2012) Brief report: longitudinal improvements in the quality of joint attention in preschool children with autism. J Autism Dev Disord 42:307-12
Davies, Mari S; Dapretto, Mirella; Sigman, Marian et al. (2011) Neural bases of gaze and emotion processing in children with autism spectrum disorders. Brain Behav 1:1-11
Hogart, Amber; Wu, David; LaSalle, Janine M et al. (2010) The comorbidity of autism with the genomic disorders of chromosome 15q11.2-q13. Neurobiol Dis 38:181-91
Scott-Van Zeeland, Ashley A; McNealy, Kristin; Wang, A Ting et al. (2010) No neural evidence of statistical learning during exposure to artificial languages in children with autism spectrum disorders. Biol Psychiatry 68:345-51
Scott-Van Zeeland, Ashley A; Abrahams, Brett S; Alvarez-Retuerto, Ana I et al. (2010) Altered functional connectivity in frontal lobe circuits is associated with variation in the autism risk gene CNTNAP2. Sci Transl Med 2:56ra80
Scott-Van Zeeland, Ashley A; Dapretto, Mirella; Ghahremani, Dara G et al. (2010) Reward processing in autism. Autism Res 3:53-67

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