Early Cognitive, Behavioral, and Emotional Indicators of Social Interaction Outcomes in Children with Autism

Abstract

Among Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) characteristics, social interaction difficulties are a primary cause of functional outcomes over the long term. The current literature is pointing towards growing evidence that cognitive, behavioral and emotional characteristics that develop early on are highly influential in determining the course of social interactions, but these factors are often studied individually, which restricts the knowledge of how these factors interact to affect each other. The empirical research design selected in the current study was quantitative in nature to study the level at which early cognitive, behavioral, and emotional predictors determine the result of social interaction in children with ASD. The design used was cross-sectional and the sample included 280 children aged 3-8 years with a verified ASD diagnosis. Standard caregiver-report and clinician-observation measures were used to assess early cognitive indicators (attention regulation, executive functioning and early language skills), behavioral indicators (joint attention, imitation and play skills) and emotional indicators (emotion regulation, emotion recognition and social motivation). The results of social interaction were measured in terms of reciprocal social communication, peer interaction, and social responsiveness areas. Correlation, multiple regression and hierarchical regression analyses were done to analyze data. Findings were that the three developmental domains had strong correlations with the social interaction outcomes. The social interaction competence was accounted by the collective contribution of early cognitive, behavioral, and emotional indicators (56). Behavioral indicators proved to be the most important predictors and then emotional and cognitive indicators, which each bring specific variance to the model. These results confirm a multidimensional, transactional early social development model of autism and the relevance of comprehensive, developmentally sensitive evaluation and interventions strategies. The paper identifies early behavioral and emotional processes as important intervention points to achieve maximum outcomes in social interaction among children with ASD.