Autism prodrome 49 of 89
With respect to parents of ‘high risk’ younger siblings who already have a
child diagnosed with an ASD and who are coping with many issues associated with
having a child with special needs, as these families have additional children they are
not only dealing with the child with the diagnosis but also with the concern of
whether their newborn child will or will not be on the spectrum. Our data regarding
the developmental trajectories of these siblings is still somewhat limited as most
siblings' studies have been initiated only in the last 5-10 years. In the longest-
established study to date we (Yirmiya, Gamliel, Shaked, & Sigman, 2007) report that
some siblings show some delays in language development during the second and third
year of life, but that for some SIBS-A, these delays were caught up without any
intervention by age 54 month. We also highlight the various developmental
trajectories in the preschool years, with some of the young siblings exhibiting
continuous difficulties in language, whereas others reveal transient difficulties, and
still others revealing difficulties for the first time only after the preschool years, at the
ages of 7 and 10 years (Gamliel et al., 2009; Seidman et al., in press). Several
explanations were presented for these difficulties including the possibility of a
"sleeper effect" trajectory or the possibility of different underlying mechanisms for
language development in the preschool years (Rogers, 2009).
These data raise an important question regarding the threshold which ethically
and clinically necessitates informing parents. When genetic information is available,
there is no doubt that we should inform parents of any information that may be useful
to them and their offspring. Yet what should the guideline be regarding informing
parents about the development of their younger child and recommending further
assessment, and or prevention and or intervention programs? Families who have a
child with an ASD are busy families who are most likely already receiving services