Petra Warreyn

• Ghent University

Research on speech and language development has a long history, but in the past decade, it has been transformed by advances in recording technologies, analysis and classification tools, and AI-based language models. We conducted a systematic literature review to identify recently developed (semi-)automatic tools for studying speech-language develop...

Infants at elevated likelihood for or later diagnosed with autism typically have smaller vocabularies than their peers, as shown by the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory (CDI). However, the extent to which MSEL and CDI scores align remains unclear, especially across clinical and non...

Project ImPACT is a parent-implemented intervention, focused on teaching social communication to toddlers and preschoolers with autism. The program can be used in an individual, group, or telehealth version and uses a blend of developmental and behavioral techniques. We found sufficient evidence to consider the original Project ImPACT as an establi...

This longitudinal study investigated the predictive value of initial level and growth rate of joint attention and play from 10 to 24 months for language abilities of 24-month-old toddlers at elevated likelihood (EL) for autism. (Semi-)structured assessments were used to measure all variables at different timepoints prospectively in younger siblings...

This study adopts a person-centered approach to evaluate personality diversity as a source of interpersonal variability in autistic children and adolescents, and how personality subgroup membership relates to variability in autistic characteristics, social-emotional presentations, and parenting outcomes. Latent Profile Analysis was used to analyze...

This study examined the recurrence rate of autism in siblings at elevated likelihood (EL) and the predictive validity of the Q-CHAT and ADOS-2 at 14 and 24 months (m) for a clinical best estimate (CBE) autism diagnosis at 3 years. 331 EL-siblings (47.9% girls) from the prospective longitudinal EuroSibs study underwent ADOS-2 assessments and caregiv...

This study investigated the association between Sensory processing (SP) (i.e., hyporesponsiveness, Sensory Seeking (SS) and hyperresponsiveness) at 10 months (M) and language/social‐communicative difficulties at 24M, mediated through object play at 14M in young children at elevated likelihood for autism (EL). Parent‐report instruments were used to...

Background Characteristics of parent‐child interaction (PCI) early in life have been associated with later development in the child. Twin studies can help to disentangle child contributions to parent‐child interaction, for example, by assessing the influence of the child's genetics on his/her social environment, which includes parental behaviour....

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with life‐long challenges with social cognition, and one of its earliest and most common manifestations is atypical joint attention, which is a pivotal skill in social‐cognitive and linguistic development. Early interventions for ASD children often focus on training initiation of joint attention (IJA) an...

Background: Joint attention is achieved through a combination of verbal and non-verbal cues interacting in systematic ways. Nonetheless, existing studies examining multimodal pathways to joint attention focus on the co-occurrence of a limited set of domains, using methods like lag-sequential analysis. Yet, alternative computational methods, such as...

Previous research has generally found lower wellbeing levels among parents of autistic children that were related to fewer positive and more negative parenting behaviours. However, these relationships have not yet been studied before a formal autism diagnosis is given. The present study investigates wellbeing (including positive mood, vitality, and...

Purpose: Infants later diagnosed with autism typically have smaller vocabularies than their peers. The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory (CDI) and the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) are key tools for assessing infants' language abilities, but it remains unclear what the association is between these measures in infancy, a...

According to the principle of neuroplasticity, early repeated and intense exposure to stimuli can lead to changes in brain structure. In line with this view, it has been argued that early interventions for autistic children could have an impact on their neural development. In the present systematic review, we synthesised the available evidence on n...

Autism is increasingly viewed as an expression of neurodiversity deserving accommodation, rather than merely as a disorder in need of remediation or even prevention. This reconceptualization has inspired calls to broaden the ethical debate on early autism care beyond matters of efficient screenings and effective interventions. We conducted 14 in-de...

Introduction Early relationships with teachers play an important role in children’s development and significantly influence students’ cognitive and academic performance. Studies suggest that working memory (WM) is a strong predictor of academic achievement, especially of reading and arithmetic outcomes. The associations between teacher-student rela...

We aim to investigate early developmental trajectories of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) as indexed by the pupillary light reflex (PLR) in infants with (i.e. preterm birth, feeding difficulties, or siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder) and without (controls) increased likelihood for atypical ANS development. We used eye-tracking t...

Autism is increasingly viewed as an expression of neurodiversity deserving accommodation, rather than merely as a disorder in need of remediation or even prevention. This reconceptualization has inspired calls to broaden the ethical debate on early autism care beyond matters of efficient screenings and effective interventions. We conducted 14 in-de...

The pre-registered (with OSF) analysis plan for our upcoming article on infants' PCI and later social communication G-E (genetic-environment) structure, using the BATSS cohort.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by behavioral features that appear early in life. Although studies have shown that atypical brain functional and structural connectivity are associated with these behavioral traits, the occurrence and initial alterations of brain networks have not been fully investigated....

Well-being and parenting behaviours were studied longitudinally among mothers of younger siblings of children on the autism spectrum (‘siblings’; n = 81) and prematurely born children (‘pre-terms’; n = 40). Growth curves were modelled to investigate whether maternal well-being and group (siblings vs. pre-terms) were associated with (change in) repo...

This study examined the family emotional climate as assessed by Five Minute Speech Samples and the relation with parenting stress and parenting behaviors among parents of children (6–17 years, 64.7% boys) with autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, and without any known disability (n = 447). The large majority of parents (79%) sho...

Using the Opportunity-Propensity Model (Byrnes in Dev Rev 56:100911, 2020; Byrnes & Miller in Contemp Educ Psychol 32(4);599–629, 2007), the current study investigated which factors helped predicting children’s home learning experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, thereby examining differences between children with (DD; n = 779) and without (TD;...

Play of younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (siblings; n = 44), very preterm children (preterms; n = 44), and children at typical likelihood for ASD (n = 36) was observed at 24 months. Children with ASD and atypical development engaged less in spontaneous (pre-)symbolic play than typically developing children. Total dur...

Using the Opportunity-Propensity Model (Byrnes, 2020; Byrnes & Miller, 2007), the current study investigated which factors helped predicting children’s home learning experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic, thereby examining differences between children with (DD; n = 779) and without (TD; n = 1443) developmental disorders. MANCOVA results indicate...

Research on emergent autism spectrum disorder increasingly uses observational measures to investigate parenting of young children with or at elevated likelihood of autism. This systematic review analysed 21 papers narratively, including 13 unique ‘coding approaches’ and 63 parenting constructs. Through a comprehensive consensus decision-making proc...

Little ethical recommendations on returning children’s individual research findings are available for researchers in behavioral sciences, especially when compared to genetic research. Anecdotic evidence suggests that since parents are often interested in their child’s individual research findings, researchers tend to offer this information as a for...

Background: Sound perception in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is usually at typical levels, even when auditory stimuli carry a social value, as it is the case for speech. Nevertheless, orienting to sounds in a speech context might be atypical in some individuals with ASD, which in ERP studies is reflected by a diminished P3a component. As P3 value...

De meest effectieve behandelingen om (jonge) kinderen met autisme vaardigheden aan te leren bestaan uit een combinatie van interactieve en gedragstherapeutische technieken. In dit hoofdstuk bespreken we de meest voorkomende technieken. Interactieve technieken worden gebruikt om de betrokkenheid en motivatie van het kind tijdens interacties te verho...

In de strijd tegen het coronavirus (COVID-19) werd het onderwijs in Vlaanderen vanaf 16 maart enkele maanden op afstand georganiseerd. Ondanks de grote inspanningen van zowel scholen, leerlingen, als ouders, leek deze periode van thuisonderwijs voor veel gezinnen niet evident. Het doel van het huidig onderzoek was daarom het in kaart brengen van wa...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) likely emerges from a complex interaction between pre-existing neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities and the environment. The interaction with parents forms a key aspect of an infant's social environment, but few prospective studies of infants at elevated likelihood (EL) for ASD (who have an older sibling with ASD) have...

jats:title>Abstract The validity of the Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) System was evaluated for Dutch. 216 5-min samples (six samples per age per child) were selected from daylong recordings at 5, 10 and 14 months of age of native Dutch-speaking younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder ( N = 6) and of typically developing ch...

Research on emergent autism spectrum disorder increasingly uses observational measures to investigate parenting of young children with or at elevated likelihood of autism. This systematic review analysed 21 papers narratively, including 13 unique “coding approaches” and 63 parenting constructs. Through a comprehensive consensus decision-making proc...

This study was the first to longitudinally explore the extent to which early temperament and sensory processing were of predictive value for cognitive development and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) symptomatology in a sample of preterm children (N=50, 22 girls, mean gestational age 27 weeks). At the corrected ages of 10, 18, and 24 months, sensory...

Research project 'Parenting young children with or at elevated likelihood of autism' and preliminary findings on parenting of pre-schoolers with and without autism.

The own name is a salient stimulus, used by others to initiate social interaction. Typically developing infants orient towards the sound of their own name and exhibit enhanced event-related potentials (ERP) at 5 months. The lack of orientation to the own name is considered to be one of the earliest signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this s...

Background Language difficulties are highly prevalent in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as well as in their younger siblings (high-risk (HR) sibs). Children with ASD show substantial heterogeneity in difficulties with different language components, but it remains unknown whether this variability is also present in HR-sibs. Method Rec...

Language problems are highly prevalent in younger siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (HR-sibs), yet little is known about early predictors. There is growing evidence that motor and language development are linked and this connection might be mediated by joint attention. Developmental changes in motor abilities change how children in...

Background: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show substantial variability in their language development. Language problems are highly prevalent in these children. In addition, the quality of early language abilities contributes to the overall development of these children and is highly predictive of their adult outcome. Yet, little is...

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects social communication skills and flexible behaviour. Developing new treatment approaches for ASD requires early identification of the factors that influence later behavioural outcomes. One fruitful research paradigm has been the prospective study of infants with a first deg...

The importance of early environmental experiences, such as parenting, is increasingly acknowledged in research on emergent autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, heterogeneity of observational measures for parenting behaviour makes it difficult to compare results and draw conclusions. This may have serious consequences for research and clinical p...

Capturing variability in use of commercial technologies by autistic children can inform future learning and support technology design. Survey data were collected from parents (n = 388) in the UK, Spain, and Belgium, and includes information about individuals with a range of ages and ability levels. We found a comparable pattern of access and usage...

This study compared sibling interactions between 24-month-old children and their older sibling with ASD (high-risk; n = 24) with 24-month-old children and their typically developing older sibling (low-risk; n = 32). First, high-risk sibling pairs showed lower levels of positive behaviour and younger siblings of children with ASD imitated their olde...

Although sibling interactions play an important role in children’s early development, they are rarely studied in very young children with an older brother or sister with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study used a naturalistic, observational method to compare interactions between 18-month-old infants and their older sibling with ASD (n = 22)...

Regression coefficients for significant predictors with and without the Bonferroni correction–keyboard. (DOCX)

Correlation (Spearman's rank correlation coefficients) between the cognitive functioning of the older child with ASD and sibling interaction characteristics of both children. (DOCX)

Regression coefficients for significant predictors with and without the Bonferroni correction—Marble run/blocks. (DOCX)

The parent-child interaction strongly influences the emotional, behavioural, and cognitive development of young children. The nature of parent-child interactions differs in families with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but research still entails a lot of inconsistencies and there is no consensus as to how these interactions should be...

This study aimed to provide a more comprehensive picture of the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in a geographic cohort of extremely preterm born adolescents by using established diagnostic instruments in addition to screening instruments. 53 participants passed a screening procedure with two screening instruments and a diagnostic evalu...

Previous research on sensory processing sensitivity and related concepts showed an association with internalizing problems. The current explorative study investigated the underlying factor structure of the parent-report Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS) and its association with problems in daily functioning. Caregivers of 235 children (3–16 year...

Background Autism spectrum disorder can in some cases be reliably diagnosed by age 2 years, but in community settings, the mean age at diagnosis is often considerably higher. Later diagnosis has been found to be associated with lower symptom severity, lower parental socioeconomic status and fewer parental concerns. Gender differences in age at diag...

Background Autism spectrum disorder can in some cases be reliably diagnosed by age 2 years, but in community settings, the mean age at diagnosis is often considerably higher. Later diagnosis has been found to be associated with lower symptom severity, lower parental socioeconomic status and fewer parental concerns. Gender differences in age at diag...

Little is known about use of early interventions for autism spectrum disorder in Europe. Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder aged 7 years or younger (N = 1680) were recruited through parent organisations in 18 European countries and completed an online survey about the interventions their child received. There was considerable variati...

This study examined the prevalence and correlates of use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) among a sample of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) < 7 years in 18 European countries (N = 1,680). Forty-seven percent of parents reported having tried any CAM approach in the past 6 months. Diets and supplements were used by 25 % of...

Understanding neurocognitive mechanisms in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is an essential goal of autism research. Studying young children with ASD or other neurodevelopmental conditions in demanding experimental settings, however, can pose many practical and ethical challenges. In this article, we present practical strategies that fa...

Research groups across Europe have been networking to share information and ideas about research on preschool children with autism. The paper describes preliminary work to develop capacity for future multi-site randomized controlled trials of early intervention, with a specific focus on the need to measure treatment adherence where parents deliver...

Since imitation and joint attention are both important abilities for young children and since children with autism spectrum disorder show a range of problems in these domains, imitation and joint attention are important targets for intervention. In this study, we examined the possibility of promoting imitation and joint attention by means of a trai...

Autisme heeft altijd een sterke aantrekkingskracht uitgeoefend op clinici en onderzoekers uit diverse disciplines. Het wordt beschouwd als een ernstige en levenslange stoornis met een duidelijke impact op het dagelijks functioneren. In de DSM-5 werden autisme en verwante stoornissen samengevoegd tot één overkoepelende diagnose: de autismespectrumst...

Purpose: To evaluate the effect that different intervention methods have on the social-communicative abilities of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in community settings. Methods: Intervention based on applied behaviour analysis was compared with a more specific intervention programme targeting imitation and joint attention (JA) and w...

Background: Parent-child interaction strongly influences the emotional, behavioral, and cognitive development of young children. In a supportive, positive parent-child interaction children can learn and practice a range of abilities (e.g. coping, social skills, etc.). However, given the social-communicative deficits associated with ASD, it is often...

The aim of this study was to look at the unique contributions of imitation, pretend play and joint attention to differences in receptive and expressive language. Associations between social-communicative and language abilities were assessed thoroughly in a large sample (n = 83) of preschoolers with ASD. We hypothesized that these associations are d...

Investigating the underlying neural mechanisms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has recently been influenced by the discovery of mirror neurons. These neurons, active during both observation and execution of actions, are thought to play a crucial role in imitation and other social-communicative skills that are often impaired in ASD. In the current...

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a pervasive developmental disorder with a lifelong impact on multiple domains of functioning. Often, a diagnosis is possible by 3 years of age. Given the benefits of early intervention, it is advisable to start treatment as soon as possible after the diagnosis has been made. Among other factors, early intervention...

Objective Previous infant studies investigated neural mirroring during the observation of live or video actions. However, both methods have their (dis)advantages and studies using one of these methods are not always directly comparable. Therefore, the present study directly compared neural mirroring activity in a video setting with a live setting i...

Since their discovery in the early 1990s, mirror neurons have been proposed to be related to many social-communicative abilities, such as imitation. However, research into the early manifestations of the putative neural mirroring system and its role in early social development is still inconclusive. In the current EEG study, mu suppression, general...

The current study aims to investigate in infants the discrimination of the number set 1 versus 3. This number set has not been studied before within the field of early number discrimination. Participants were 16 full term 8-month-olds. They were assessed for their number discrimination ability with a computerized habituation task in combination wit...

Previous studies on autism have shown a lack of motor anticipation in children and adults with autism. As part of a programme of research into early detection of autism, we focussed on an everyday situation: spoon-feeding. We hypothesize that an anticipation deficit may be found very early on by observing whether the baby opens his or her mouth in...

Whilst impairments in joint attention, imitation, and pretend play are well documented in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the developmental trajectories of these symptoms remain unknown. The main objective was to explore these trajectories in a sample of children at risk for ASD between the ages of 2 and 4 years. After screening posit...

From the moment infants are born, they seem to prefer orienting to social stimuli, over objects and non-social stimuli. This preference lasts throughout adulthood and is believed to play a crucial role in social-communicative development. By following up a group of infants at the age of 6, 8, and 12 months, this study explored the role of social or...

Screening instruments for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often generate many false positives. It is argued that these children may have other developmental difficulties and are also in need of thorough assessment and early intervention. The current study looked at the predictive validity of positive screens on the Checklist for Early Signs of Devel...

Joint attention is the triadic coordination of attention between the child, a second person, and an event, object, or third person. Several studies have demonstrated that joint attention skills of children relate positively to language abilities, cognition, behavioural competence, and social development. The development of joint attention in childr...

This within-family study investigated whether mothers differentiate between children in their interactive behavior. Mothers were observed during a play and a task interaction separately with their child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (between 46 and 84 months old, M = 68) and with a younger sibling (between 29 and 67 months old, M = 48). Addit...

Several screening instruments for ASD in young children were developed during the last decades. Only few studies compare the discriminative power of these instruments in the same sample. In particular comparisons of instruments that use different informants are scarce in young children. The current study compared the discriminant ability of the Che...

Background: It is generally accepted that joint attention is impaired in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). As joint attention skills have repeatedly been demonstrated to relate to the development of language, cognition, social skills and behavioural competence (e.g., Charman et al., 2003; Kasari et al., 2008; Vaughan Van Hecke et al, 20...

It is generally accepted that joint attention skills are impaired in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this study, social preference, attention disengagement and intention understanding, assumed to be associated with the development of joint attention, are explored in relation to joint attention skills in children with ASD at the age...

In this study the social behaviour of young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their mothers is compared within two different dyads: a dyad consisting of a mother and her own child and a dyad consisting of a mother and an unfamiliar child. Mothers did not change the frequency of their social initiatives and responsiveness with an unfa...

The parenting experiences of mothers in a family with a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and a typically developing (TD) child were studied using a qualitative analysis of mothers’ perceptions of the impact of autism on family and personal life. An additional quantitative comparison was performed to evaluate the effect of ASD on mothers’ p...

Background: In children with autism imitation problems have consistently been found (Williams et al., 2004). Combining the research on imitation in autism with the discovery of mirror neurons led to the hypothesis of a dysfunctional mirror neuron system (MNS) in individuals with ASD (Williams, Whiten, Suddendorf, & Perrett, 2001). Since imitation...

Background: In typical development, imitation and joint attention are both present in the first year of life. For the preverbal child, they have a significant social-communicative function, and they seem to be longitudinally related to later language and theory of mind development. In preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), both imitation...

Background: Impairments in the early social communicative abilities imitation, joint attention and pretend play are rigorously documented in children with ASD. Previous research shows that these impairments are not absolute. Little is known however about how these abilities develop. Objectives: The aim of the present prospective study was to asses...

Background: Most research around early signs of ASD is retrospective in nature or based on high-risk populations, so little is known about the specificity of these early signs. However, some young children with other developmental disorders seem to show signs of ASD as well (many false positive screens in screening studies have other developmental...