Poster #61 - Testing the Concurrent Validity of the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) in 18-month-olds

• In Event: 3-106 - Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Section - Developmental Psychopathology

Integrative Statement

The modified checklist for autism in toddlers (M-CHAT) is a 23-item questionnaire designed to screen for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Previous findings have confirmed the questionnaire’s sensitivity and specificity across several populations (Charman et al,. 2015; Chlebowski et al., 2013; Kleinman et al., 2008; Srisinghasongkram et al., 2016). However, to our knowledge, only one previous study (Wright & Poulin-Dubois, 2012) has examined the concurrent validity of the M-CHAT in 18-month-old infants. The authors found that infants’ scores on the M-CHAT was related to their performance on both a word-learning task and a desire reasoning task. In the present study, two experiments further examined the concurrent validity of the M-CHAT by testing how it predicts word learning (experiment 1) as well as socio-emotional skills (experiment 2) in 18-month-old infants. In experiment 1, 73 infants completed a word learning task, in which they heard an experimenter either correctly or incorrectly label familiar objects. They were then taught novel words by the same speaker. Results demonstrated that the number of items endorsed on the MCHAT was negatively related to the proportion of trials on which infants disengaged from their toy to attend to the experimenter’s toy during the word leaning phase. Further, infants assigned to the reliable speaker condition, who scored higher on the, were less likely to offer the correct novel object when their learning of the novel words were tested. In experiment 2, 76 infants completed an instrumental helping task (Warneken & Tomasello, 2007), an empathetic helping task (Svetlova et al., 2010) and an imitation task (Bauer and Mandler, 1989). In the instrumental helping task, infants were presented with two situations in which they had to help an experimenter who dropped a book or couldn’t reach a block to finish a tower. Infants’ responses were coded for their helping behavior. Next, in the empathetic helping tasks, after a first experimenter (E1) demonstrated preference for a target object, it was stolen by a second experimenter (E2). E1 then went through a series of prompts to encourage the child to help her. Infants’ helping behavior was coded on a scale from 0 (no help) to 8 (gave target object after first prompt). Finally, during the imitation task, infants first viewed an experimenter demonstrate a target action, and were then asked to do as they did. Infants’ completion of the demonstrated action was coded on a 0 to 3 scale, where the maximum score of 3 was given to children who completed all actions in order. Infants who scored higher on the M-CHAT demonstrated less instrumental helping, less overall helping during the empathetic helping task, and were less successful at imitating the experimenter’s behavior in the correct order. Together, these findings confirm the concurrent validity of the M-CHAT in 18-month-old infants, when tasks assessing joint attention, imitation, prosocial behaviors and word learning are used. As previously suggested, these findings provide further support for the possibility of incorporating controlled laboratory tasks to assess early social cognitive abilities when designing early diagnostic tools for infants.

Authors

• Alexa Ruel, Concordia University
  Presenting Author

• Cristina Crivello, Concordia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sabrina Chiarella, Concordia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jessy Burdman-Villa, Concordia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Diane Poulin-Dubois, Concordia University
  Non-Presenting Author