Abstract

Joint attention, affective responsivity, and symbolic play have been identified in the last granting periods as central deficits in young autistic children. One objective of the next granting period will be the evaluation of the developmental stability of these deficits over time. A second objective will be the further definition of the deficits using two strategies: a) abilities will be examined in older children that could not be assessed in younger autistic children such as search and classification strategies, knowledge of conservation, empathetic understanding, and executive functions and b) physiological responses will be investigated in a new sample of young children to determine if these cohere with behavioral response patterns.
The aim of these studies will be to determine the extent to which the identified deficits reflect disorders in attention, cognitive understanding, or response to affect. The third objective of the proposed project will be the investigation of the continuity of individual differences and predictability of subsequent social, metarepresentational, and language abilities from the psychological functions assessed in early childhood for 70 autistic and 70 mentally retarded children. Given the variability in eventual outcomes of autistic individuals, a critical aim of this project is to identify early abilities and deficits linked significantly to later capacities which are, therefore, crucial targets for early intervention.

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01NS025243-12
Application #
3410480
Study Section
Human Development and Aging Subcommittee 3 (HUD)
Project Start
1987-02-01
Project End
1996-06-30
Budget Start
1993-07-01
Budget End
1994-06-30
Support Year
12
Fiscal Year
1993
Total Cost
Indirect Cost

  Institution

Name
University of California Los Angeles
Department
Type
Other Domestic Higher Education
DUNS #
119132785
City
Los Angeles
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
90095

  Publications

Sigman, Marian; Dissanayake, Cheryl; Corona, Rosalie et al. (2003) Social and cardiac responses of young children with autism. Autism 7:205-16
Siller, Michael; Sigman, Marian (2002) The behaviors of parents of children with autism predict the subsequent development of their children's communication. J Autism Dev Disord 32:77-89
Travis, L; Sigman, M; Ruskin, E (2001) Links between social understanding and social behavior in verbally able children with autism. J Autism Dev Disord 31:119-30
Capps, L; Losh, M; Thurber, C (2000) ""The frog ate the bug and made his mouth sad"": narrative competence in children with autism. J Abnorm Child Psychol 28:193-204
Sigman, M; Ruskin, E; Arbeile, S et al. (1999) Continuity and change in the social competence of children with autism, Down syndrome, and developmental delays. Monogr Soc Res Child Dev 64:1-114
Sigman, M (1998) The Emanuel Miller Memorial Lecture 1997. Change and continuity in the development of children with autism. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 39:817-27
Dissanayake, C; Sigman, M; Kasari, C (1996) Long-term stability of individual differences in the emotional responsiveness of children with autism. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 37:461-7
Mundy, P; Kasari, C; Sigman, M et al. (1995) Nonverbal communication and early language acquisition in children with Down syndrome and in normally developing children. J Speech Hear Res 38:157-67
Sigman, M; Arbelle, S; Dissanayake, C (1995) Current research findings on childhood autism. Can J Psychiatry 40:289-94
Arbelle, S; Sigman, M D; Kasari, C (1994) Compliance with parental prohibition in autistic children. J Autism Dev Disord 24:693-702

Showing the most recent 10 out of 17 publications