Parent-mediated intervention in infants with an elevated likelihood for autism reduces dwell time during a gaze following task

Bedford, Rachael, Green, Jonathan, Gliga, Teodora, Jones, Emily H., Elsabbagh, Mayada, Pasco, Greg, Wan, Ming Wai, Slonims, Vicky, Charman, Tony, Pickles, Andrew and Johnson, Mark H. and The BASIS Team (2024) Parent-mediated intervention in infants with an elevated likelihood for autism reduces dwell time during a gaze following task. Autism Research. ISSN 1939-3792 (In Press)

PDF (AAM) - Accepted Version Restricted to Repository staff only until 31 December 2099. Request a copy

Abstract

Cognitive markers may in theory be more sensitive to the effects of intervention than overt behavioural measures. The current study tests the impact of the Intervention with the British Autism Study of Infant Siblings – Video Interaction for Promoting Positive Parenting (iBASIS-VIPP) on an eye-tracking measure of social attention: dwell time to the referred object in a Gaze Following Task. The original two-site, two-arm, assessor-blinded randomised controlled trial (RCT) of this intervention to increase parental awareness and responsiveness to their infant, was run with infants who have an elevated familial likelihood for autism (EL). Fifty-four EL infants (28 iBASIS-VIPP intervention, 26 no intervention) were enrolled, and the intervention took place between 9 months (baseline) and 15 months (endpoint), with gaze following behaviour measured at 15 months. Secondary intention to treat (ITT) analysis showed that the intervention was associated with significantly reduced dwell time to the referent of another person’s gaze (beta=-.32, SE=.14, p=.03) at 15-month treatment endpoint. Given the established link between gaze following and language, the results are considered in the context of a previously-reported, non-significant and transient trend towards lower language scores at treatment endpoint (Green et al., 2015). Future intervention trials should aim to include experimental cognitive measures, alongside behavioural measures, to investigate mechanisms associated with intervention effects.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Funding information: The research was supported by awards from the BASIS funding consortium led by Autistica (No: 7267), The Waterloo Foundation and Autism Speaks US; and from the UK Medical Research Council (MR/T003057/1) and the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre for Mental Health at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and King's College London. JG and AP are National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigators (NIHR NF-SI-0617-10168 and NF-SI-0617-10120 respectively). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Psychology
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Developmental Science
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	28 Aug 2024 10:30
Last Modified:	28 Aug 2024 10:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/96366
DOI:	issn:1939-3792

Actions (login required)

View Item