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The Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Early Vocal Development in Infants at Risk of ASD

Fri, April 9, 4:30 to 5:30pm EDT (4:30 to 5:30pm EDT), Virtual

Abstract

Socioeconomic status (SES) is known to impact many aspects of child development, including language acquisition, but the mechanisms by which different SES factors may interact with ASD risk to affect severity of outcome are not well understood. It is unclear whether two main factors, access to resources (household income) and parental environment (education and occupation), show profiles that differ for ASD, and whether any such differences are significant in relating core features of autism to language.
The goal of this study was to test whether indices of socioeconomic status measuring parental income and education at birth predict early trajectories of vocal development over 0-24 months and later language outcome at two years, in autism and typical development.
As part of an NIH Autism Center of Excellence, we tracked vocal development in 45 high-risk siblings and 35 low-risk controls. Using a recording device (LENA) worn by each child, we made audio recordings of each child's language environment from 0-24 months. Using speech recognition technology, we counted the number of vocalizations per hour for child and adult, as well as the rate of contingent interactions. Using Functional Data Analysis, we calculated developmental trajectories for each child. We modeled each trajectory as an exponential curve with scale and exponent parameters to separately characterize overall dosage and change over time. Receptive and expressive language scores from the Mullen Scales of Early Learning were collected from children who completed clinical assessments at 24 months. Based on parent questionnaires, we determined household income quantized into $25K intervals and calculated the Hollingshead Four-Factor Index from caregiver education and occupation.
Comparing the joint distribution of the two SES indices, we found significant differences between risk groups; both showed the expected correlation between income and education, but the high-risk group scored lower on both. We found significant correlations between both income and education factors and expressive and receptive language scores overall (e.g., r(SES_EF, Mullen_EL)=.273, P<.05), but no significant difference between risk groups, indicating that SES impacts language outcome regardless of autism risk. We found significant correlations between education and income factors and the scaling parameter of the adult vocalization rate trajectories (e.g., r(SES_EF, a_AVR)=.312, P<.05), but not other parameters, suggesting that SES affects the amount of parental input, but does not affect either child volubility or vocal contingency, or change over time. In contrast, our previous research showed that rate of change over time in vocal contingency, rather than adult and child volubility, is the main predictor of diagnosis and language outcome in high-risk infants. This suggests that the mechanism by which SES influences language outcome is common across risk groups and unrelated to autism.
Consistent with previous studies, we found that SES is correlated with parental input and language outcome. Although there are differences in SES between high-risk and low-risk infants, this research suggests that early differences in parental input, generally associated with socioeconomic status, do not resemble early deficits in infant-caregiver social interaction specifically associated with autism, indicating that these are separate compounding factors impacting language outcome.

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