Medizinische Universität Graz Austria/Österreich - Forschungsportal - Medical University of Graz
Gewählte Publikation:
Bartl-Pokorny, K.
Early detection of developmental disorders: The role of communicative development
Doktoratsstudium der Medizinischen Wissenschaft; Humanmedizin; [ Dissertation ] Graz Medical University; 2019. pp. 207
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- Autor*innen der Med Uni Graz:
- Bartl-Pokorny Katrin Daniela
- Betreuer*innen:
- Einspieler Christa
- Marschik Peter
- Petek Erwin
- Altmetrics:
- Abstract:
- A number of developmental disorders are usually detected in toddlerhood or beyond, when certain physical features become apparent, developmental milestones are not met (in time), and/or behavioural/neurofunctional deviances reach a certain threshold to allow clinical diagnosis. Deficits in the socio-communicative domain are among the core symptoms of a great proportion of these late recognised developmental disorders. However, the current knowledge on the pre-diagnostic socio-communicative development of children with such developmental disorders is still limited. This thesis aimed to shed light into the early socio-communicative development of children with late recognised developmental disorders by (i) comprehensively analysing the socio-communicative capacities of children with Rett syndrome (RTT), fragile X syndrome (FXS), or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in their first 2 years of life, (ii) comparing these results with those of a control group of typically developing children, and (iii) providing cross-syndrome comparisons. The analysis was based on retrospective audio-video recordings made by the parents of children with RTT (typical or preserved speech variant; n = 7), FXS (n = 9), ASD (n = 10), or typical development (TD; n = 10) when their children were between 9 and 24 months of age. The Inventory of Potential Communicative Acts (IPCA; Sigafoos, Arthur-Kelly and Butterfield, 2006) was applied to identify communicative forms and functions. Developmental peculiarities in the socio-communicative domain of the participants with RTT, FXS, or ASD were found from the end of the first year of life onwards. In particular, participants later diagnosed with a developmental disorder had reduced gestural and (pre-)linguistic vocalisation repertoires and a limited range of communicative functions especially in terms of ‘requesting an object/action/information’ compared to the participants with TD. Socio-communicative capacities increased in the participants with FXS or TD throughout the observation period although those of the FXS group were lower compared to those of the TD group. Socio-communicative capacities of the participants with ASD initially increased and then seemed to decrease indicating a potential regression of communicative abilities. The evidence of (a) early socio-communicative deviances in children with RTT, FXS, or ASD, and (b) specific socio-communicative profiles for different developmental disorders is conceptually appealing, but needs further research taking into account certain methodological difficulties. Still, our data advance the understanding of the pre-diagnostic socio-communicative development of children with RTT, FXS, or ASD, and might prove useful with respect to the earlier detection of children with late recognised developmental disorders.