Abstract
Empathy deficits represent an important social impairment in autism spectrum disorders (ASD), but little is known about the early development of empathy prior to diagnosis. This study examined empathic responding to parental distress in toddlers at risk for an ASD. Children later diagnosed with an ASD engaged in less empathic responding at 24 and 30 months than children with no later diagnosis. Lower empathic responding was associated with higher autism symptomatology at 30 months. This is the first study to examine empathy deficits in response to parental distress in toddlers prior to ASD diagnosis. Early empathic responding may represent a unique developing social skill that indexes the overall severity of later ASD symptomatology in at-risk children.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by grants from the National Institute of Health: R01 HD047417 and R01 HD057284, Autism Speaks, and the Marino Autism Research Institute. The authors would like to thank the children and families who participated in this longitudinal study. In addition, the authors are grateful for the behavioral coding contributions of Haley Gordon and Gizelle Robinson, as well as the valuable feedback provided by Naomi Ekas, Heather Henderson, Alexandra Quittner, and Kristin Lindahl. This study was originally prepared as the first author’s master’s thesis.
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McDonald, N.M., Messinger, D.S. Empathic Responding in Toddlers at Risk for an Autism Spectrum Disorder. J Autism Dev Disord 42, 1566–1573 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-011-1390-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-011-1390-y