Toddlers with ASD display emotional vulnerabilities emotional risk signaling, behavioral problems

At the time when autism spectrum disorder (ASD) can be first reliably diagnosed, toddlers affected by ASD are already exhibiting emotional vulnerabilities of possible forest-emergence of co-morbid affective and behavioral conditions highly prevalent in older children, reports a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP).

The authors found that toddlers with ASD display enhanced anger and frustration and decreased fear in response to naturalistic situations. They also found that the ability to experience joy appears intact in the early stages of the disorder.

Suzanne Macari and Katarzyna Chawarska, Ph.D., at the Child Study Center at the Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA. "This study documents, for the first time, that can be reliably diagnosed, toddlers with ASD already displayed emotional vulnerabilities signaling risk for co-morbid affective and behavioral problems."

The findings are based on a discussion of the subject of the study of ASD in the Northeastern United States and includes 43 toddlers with ASD and 56 non-ASD controls.

Toddlers aged 21 months were recruited between December 2013 and March 2017. Using a multi-modal approach, the researchers investigated the intensity of emotional responses to the problem.

"The vulnerabilities are unrelated to autism symptoms and thus, independently contribute to the development of highly heterogeneous autism phenotypes," added Drs. Macari and Chawarska. "In addition to social and communication concerns, clinicians should also focus on badessing and treating affective symptoms in ASD with the hope of improving the severity of comorbid disorders in ASD."

The researchers found that when they were able to reach out, they found that ASD displayed elevated levels of anxiety and frustration. However, when faced with novel and potentially threatening objects, their fear intensity is lower than in comparison groups. While an elevated anger response to the challenge of developing the system, the attenuated fear response suggests.

Although there is a prevailing notion of children with ASD, the study has shown that it is comparable to ASD and the control groups. This suggests that in the early stages of the disorder, the ability to experience joy may be intact. Harnessing this positive emotional competence is critical for the activation of positive emotions. Together, the study reveals a complex and complex emotional landscape of ASD and provides strong motivation for investigating early emotional development in ASD and its role in emergence of autism.