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Children
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Early Intervention Strategies: Leveraging Sociocognitive Development for the Diagnosis and...
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Early Intervention Strategies: Leveraging Sociocognitive Development for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Neurodevelopmental Disorders

A special issue of Children (ISSN 2227-9067). This special issue belongs to the section "Pediatric Neurology & Neurodevelopmental Disorders".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 5 June 2026 | Viewed by 1170

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Francisco Alcantud-Marín

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Psychology, University of Valencia, Blasco Ibañez Avenue 21, 46010 Valencia, Spain
Interests: neurodevelopmental disorders; autism spectrum disorders ASD detection; ASD diagnosis; ASD early intervention; etiology of nerodevelopmental disorders; epidemiology of neurodevelopmental disorders
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Yurena Alonso-Esteban

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Psychology, University of La Laguna, Campus Guajara, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
Interests: neurodevelopmental disorders; austism spectrum disorders; screening tools; early intervention
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sociocognitive development refers to the process by which individuals acquire, understand, and apply the knowledge and skills that are necessary to interact effectively with others and to understand and manage their own mental processes. Sociocognitive development can be explained by the interaction of personal (biological) factors, environmental influences, and behaviour, highlighting the importance of observational learning, reinforcement, self-regulation, and the perception of personal efficacy.

Signs of sociocognitive development can be found from the first months of life. Sociocognitive development is the precursor to communication and language development and is fundamental for the individual to develop the metacognitive abilities that are necessary to interpret basic emotional signals (facial and body expressions, gaze, etc.) and the process of symbolisation. As a precursor to the development of communication and language, knowledge of how sociocognitive development occurs prior to the emergence of language can help detect certain developmental deviations or alterations that cascade into more serious disorders. Disorders or delays in the development of these skills are associated with the later onset of symptoms of neurodevelopmental disorders, particularly autism spectrum disorders or language disorders. This Special Issue welcomes studies related to the assessment of early sociocognitive skills and intervention strategies for their development, as well as clinical trials, systematic reviews, and theoretical reviews.

Prof. Dr. Francisco Alcantud-Marín
Dr. Yurena Alonso-Esteban
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Children is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sociocognitive development
  • early intervention
  • neurodevelopmental screening
  • autism spectrum disorders (ASDs)
  • attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 2112 KB  
Article
Unveiling Distinctive Eye Tracking Markers to Distinguish Toddlers with High-Risk Autism as Indicated by ADOS Within an Elevated-Likelihood Toddler Sample
by Orsolya Pachner, Péter Soltész, Ferenc Gombos and Patrícia Gerván
Children 2026, 13(1), 55; https://doi.org/10.3390/children13010055 - 30 Dec 2025
Viewed by 747
Abstract
Background: Eye tracking technology can be utilized to identify early markers of autism. Several neurodivergent features of social attention have been revealed by eye tracking studies in ASD toddlers. Our aim was to develop stimulus material that elicits highly distinctive gaze patterns in [...] Read more.
Background: Eye tracking technology can be utilized to identify early markers of autism. Several neurodivergent features of social attention have been revealed by eye tracking studies in ASD toddlers. Our aim was to develop stimulus material that elicits highly distinctive gaze patterns in toddlers at low and high risk for autism as indicated by ADOS (i.e., scoring below and above the ADOS cut-off point). Additionally, we sought to identify the variables most effective in differentiating between these groups. Methods: In our research, we analyzed the data of 74 toddlers between 12 and 30 months. Children were divided into two groups based on their ADOS scores: the lower ADOS (lrADOS) group included those scoring below the ADOS cut-off point (n = 42; mean age = 22.5 ± 5.0 months), while the higher ADOS (hrADOS) group comprised children scoring above the cut-off (n = 32; mean age = 23.3 ± 4.8 months). We recorded eye gaze data during the presentation of dynamic social attention stimuli with a self-developed eye tracking device. We used two types of social attention stimuli: joint attention (ostensive) and preferential looking paradigm. We analyzed the area of interest based on the gaze–time ratio. To ensure sufficient robustness, we selected gaze retention interval (GRI) variables characterized by broader spatial and temporal parameters compared to traditional fixation-based measures. Results: As anticipated, we observed significant differences between the two groups across most variables. Typically, within the preferential paradigm, the distinct indicators of the social domain were higher on average in the lrADOS group compared to the hrADOS group, while the non-social domain exhibited the opposite trend. The results of correlations with ADOS scores indicated that the social ratio in the preferential paradigm exhibited the strongest negative correlation. Notably, there were higher effect sizes within the hrADOS group in comparison to the lrADOS group when correlation with ADOS scores was tested separately for each group. Conclusions: We developed stimulus materials and eye tracking variables that, thanks to their robustness, appear promising even when dealing with noisy eye tracking data typical of young children. In the preferential paradigm, beyond AOI ratio measures, GRI variables show promise in distinguishing between toddler groups with higher vs. lower ADOS scores. Furthermore, they may be related to severity based on their marked and significant correlations with ADOS scores. Especially when used in combination, these variables appear well-suited to capturing characteristics indicative of an elevated likelihood of autism. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Early Intervention Strategies: Leveraging Sociocognitive Development for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Neurodevelopmental Disorders)
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