City Research Online

Abstract

Objectives: Research investigating early identification of developmental conditions often uses an ‘increased likelihood’ methodology that recruits undiagnosed infants with affected family members. These studies are often cross-sectional or short-term follow-ups. Using grouping data from a wider longitudinal study of increased likelihood for developmental language disorder and autism, we aimed to investigate whether (i) likelihood status changes over time as family members acquire additional diagnoses and younger siblings are born (ii) Criteria used to determine likelihood affects status change and (iii) likelihood status in infancy associates with diagnostic outcome at 7 years.

Method: 67 infants categorised into 3 likelihood groups based on family history of communication difficulties: Average likelihood of communication difficulties (AL); increased likelihood of language impairment (ILLI); increased likelihood of social communication difficulties (ILSCD). Caregivers completed an interview about the presence of communication difficulties when infants were around 12 months old. At 7 years old likelihood status was re-assessed, along with diagnostic outcome information.

Results: At 7, 25.4% of children changed likelihood status based on newly available family information. Using stricter criteria to group children only reclassified 4 children but lowered this movement to 16.4%. Neither broad nor strict likelihood groups predicted diagnostic outcome at 7.

Conclusions: Longer-term follow-up revealed issues with increased likelihood methods that need considering when conducting this type of research. An early assessment-based approach is likely to lead to greater progress in establishing successful prediction of later diagnosis and support for children with communication difficulties.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Publisher Keywords:	Developmental language disorder, autism, likelihood status, communication disorders, siblings
Subjects:	R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry R Medicine > RJ Pediatrics > RJ101 Child Health. Child health services
Departments:	School of Health & Medical Sciences School of Health & Medical Sciences > Language & Communication Science
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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