Peer-reviewed article
Dyadic Synchrony and Responsiveness Within the Context of Elevated Autism Likelihood: Applying Time-Varying Effect Models.
A Kellerman, A Janis, A Piergies, S S Dermody, D S Messinger et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how infants and mothers interact with each other during the first year of life, focusing on whether patterns of these interactions can help identify children at risk for autism. Researchers compared infants from families with a history of autism to infants from families without this history, measuring moments when both the infant and mother were engaged and responsive to each other. The findings show that infants at elevated risk for autism had lower levels of back-and-forth interaction and responsiveness, and that these patterns were relatively stable over time, suggesting they could be useful for early monitoring.
Key points
- Dyadic synchrony, maternal responsiveness, and infant responsiveness were lower in infants with elevated autism likelihood compared to those with typical likelihood
- Temporal patterns of these interactions were stable over time in the elevated autism likelihood group but more variable in infants later diagnosed with autism or other developmental concerns
- Theory-driven measures of gaze, positive affect, and vocalizations were used to assess interaction quality
- Time-varying effect models can capture meaningful dyadic information useful for developmental monitoring
- Early social synchrony and responsiveness difficulties in the first year are linked to later autism concerns
Limitations
The study does not report the specific country/countries where it was conducted. The design is observational rather than interventional, so it can identify patterns associated with autism risk but not establish causation or test whether addressing these patterns improves outcomes.
Abstract
The ability to engage in synchronous interactions develops in the first year, as infants learn to sequentially regulate prosocial behaviors. Difficulty developing competence in these early social building blocks is linked to later developmental concerns, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Currently, metrics for quantifying social competence rely primarily on mean-level indices; however, interactions are dynamic. The present study modeled change in the odds of dyadic synchrony (DS), maternal responsiveness (MR), and infant responsiveness (IR) over time to explore if temporal patterns can inform developmental monitoring. Dyads were recruited from families with at least one older child with ASD (elevated ASD likelihood, n = 95) or families with no history of ASD (typical ASD likelihood, n = 72). Theory-driven indices of dyadic synchrony and responsiveness were derived from micro-analytically coded gaze, positive affect, and vocalizations. A series of logistic time-varying effect models (TVEMs) were conducted to compare temporal changes in synchrony and responsiveness across the infant/toddler groupings of (1) elevated- vs typical-ASD likelihood and (2) typical (TYP), ASD, or other developmental concerns (Non-ASD DC). DS, IR, and MR patterns were temporally stable but lower for the elevated ASD likelihood group. Temporal patterns of DS, IR, and MR were more variable for the ASD and Non-ASD DC groups. TVEMs captured meaningful dyadic information and could be used in future studies to inform prospective monitoring and parent-mediated intervention approaches.