Early Developmental Signs in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Results from the Japan Environment and Children&rsquo;s Study

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disability in early childhood. Early identification and intervention in children with ASD are essential for children and their families. This study aimed to identify the earliest signs of ASD. Using a large cohort including data from 104,062 fetal records in the Japan Environment and Children’s Study, we examined the Ages and Stages Questionnaires^® (ASQ-3^TM) scores of children with and without ASD. The ASQ-3 comprises five domains: communication, gross motor, fine motor, problem solving, and personal-social. The ASQ-3 scores were obtained at ages 6 months, 1 year, and 3 years. There were 64,501 children with available ASQ-3 data. The number of children diagnosed with ASD was 188 (0.29%) at 3 years of age. The highest relative risk (RR) for any domain below the monitoring score at 6 months was in the communication (RR 1.90, 95% CI 1.29–2.78, p = 0.0041), followed by fine motor (RR 1.50, 95% CI 1.28–1.76, p < 0.0001) domain. A low ASQ-3 score in the communication domain at 6 months was related to an ASD diagnosis at 3 years of age. The ASQ-3 score at 6 months can contribute to the early identification of and intervention for ASD. View Full-Text

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder; early signs; ASQ-3

▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Shimomura, H.; Hasunuma, H.; Tokunaga, S.; Taniguchi, Y.; Taniguchi, N.; Fujino, T.; Utsunomiya, T.; Tanaka, Y.; Tokuda, N.; Okuda, M.; Shima, M.; Takeshima, Y.; The Japan Environment and Children’s Study Group. Early Developmental Signs in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Results from the Japan Environment and Children’s Study. Children 2022, 9, 90. https://doi.org/10.3390/children9010090

AMA Style

Shimomura H, Hasunuma H, Tokunaga S, Taniguchi Y, Taniguchi N, Fujino T, Utsunomiya T, Tanaka Y, Tokuda N, Okuda M, Shima M, Takeshima Y, The Japan Environment and Children’s Study Group. Early Developmental Signs in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Results from the Japan Environment and Children’s Study. Children. 2022; 9(1):90. https://doi.org/10.3390/children9010090

Chicago/Turabian Style

Shimomura, Hideki, Hideki Hasunuma, Sachi Tokunaga, Yohei Taniguchi, Naoko Taniguchi, Tetsuro Fujino, Takeshi Utsunomiya, Yasuhiko Tanaka, Narumi Tokuda, Masumi Okuda, Masayuki Shima, Yasuhiro Takeshima, and The Japan Environment and Children’s Study Group. 2022. "Early Developmental Signs in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Results from the Japan Environment and Children’s Study" Children 9, no. 1: 90. https://doi.org/10.3390/children9010090

Find Other Styles

Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Abstract views Pdf views Html views

Article Menu

Early Developmental Signs in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Results from the Japan Environment and Children’s Study

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Article Access Map by Country/Region

Author Biographies

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI