A lack of interest in baby talk could be an early indicator of autism

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-02-09 03:00

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Autistic babies are more likely to be disinterested in baby talk, also called 'motherese', which could help identify them quicker according to international researchers. The researchers showed videos to toddlers aged 12 to 48 months featuring people speaking in baby talk, a playful, high-pitched and exaggerated way of speaking. They then tracked the toddlers' gaze to measure how fixated they were on the video while exposed to distractions. After evaluating the toddlers for autism, the researchers say while children without any autism diagnosis almost uniformly paid attention to the baby talk at an average level of about 80%, there was a wide range of interest levels among the autistic toddlers spanning 0% attention to 100% attention. The researchers say a cutoff level of 30% attention towards the baby talk could accurately predict an autism diagnosis.