From early infancy onwards, young children appear motivated to engage reciprocally with others and share psychological states during dyadic interactions. Although poor reciprocity is one of the defining features of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), few studies have focused on the direct assessment of real-life reciprocal behavior; consequently, our knowledge of the nature and the development of this core feature of autism is still limited. In this study, we describe the phenomenon of reciprocity in infant-caregiver interaction by analyzing family movies taken during the first year of life of 10 infants with ASD and 9 infants with typical development (TD). We analyzed reciprocal behaviors by means of a coding scheme developed for this purpose (caregiver-infant reciprocity scale (CIRS)). Infants with ASD displayed less motor activity during the first semester and subsequently fewer vocalizations, compared to TD infants. Caregivers of ASD infants showed in the second semester shorter periods of involvement and a reduction of affectionate touch. These results suggest that from the first months of life a nonsynchronic motor-vocal pattern may interfere in different ways with the development of reciprocity in the primary relationship between infants later diagnosed with ASD and their caregivers. 1. Introduction Reciprocity can be defined as an interactive condition in which two individuals mutually respond to each other while performing activities together [1]. This attitude is present from the first moments of life, when an infant is naturally orientated towards the mother’s face and responds preferentially to it. Reciprocity is necessary in order to reach shared goals and consists of symmetrical exchanges characterized by finely tuned turn-taking [2, 3]. From the first interactions with their caregivers, typically developing infants (TD) show a natural aptitude for engaging in joint action and for sharing psychological states [4–6]. Mutual exchanges exist from the beginning when each member of the dyad is responsive to the other, trying to engage the other in turn and changing his/her behavior according to the other’s solicitations [7]. Poor reciprocity is one of the defining features of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), a class of neurodevelopmental disorders that disrupt regular interactions in the social realm [8]. A widely shared hypothesis is that abnormalities in the processing of and in responding to stimuli coming from the social environment are in action from the first stages of life, with cascading effects on mutual exchanges in dyadic
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