Tracking Social Cognition Growth in Term and Preterm Toddlers

In the quest to unravel the intricate processes underpinning early childhood neurodevelopment, new research highlights how developmental trajectories in social communication cognition (SCC) can reveal critical windows of vulnerability that influence later social, communicative, and cognitive capacities. A recent landmark study introduces an innovative, scalable approach to understanding these trajectories, utilizing longitudinal caregiver reports collected via an online platform. This method offers unprecedented insight into how infants and toddlers, whether born at term or preterm, navigate the complex growth patterns of social communication cognition during their most formative years.

The investigation stems from a growing recognition that neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities do not manifest uniformly but rather evolve over time through dynamic, often latent patterns. The authors of this new study employed a rigorous, data-driven framework to characterize these hidden growth trajectories, offering a nuanced view that transcends the traditional snapshot assessments common in early childhood research. By capturing temporal patterns, the study seeks to pinpoint critical developmental junctures when targeted interventions could potentially mitigate long-term impairments.

Social communication cognition—a domain encompassing both the ability to interpret social cues and to appropriately respond to communicative intent—is a foundational skill set that underpins later complex social and cognitive functioning. Deficits in this domain are hallmark features of diverse neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and language delay. However, the temporal progression of SCC from infancy through toddlerhood remains insufficiently charted, especially when considering the profound biological and environmental differences presented by term versus preterm birth.

The technological innovation driving this research is an online, longitudinal caregiver-report tool designed to collect repeated measures of SCC abilities. Caregiver reports are particularly valuable due to caregivers’ intimate and continuous observation, capturing subtle developmental changes that might elude clinical assessment windows. This remote, scalable approach also democratizes data collection, allowing researchers to amass large, diverse datasets with greater ease and reduced burden on families.

By applying advanced latent growth modeling techniques to longitudinal caregiver data, the researchers identified distinct underlying growth trajectories of SCC in both term and preterm infants and toddlers. These latent trajectories represent unobservable patterns inferred statistically, revealing heterogeneity within populations that might otherwise be masked by averaging or cross-sectional snapshots. Importantly, the trajectories demonstrated divergence between term and preterm groups, underscoring the unique developmental challenges faced by preterm infants.

This divergence reflects not only the biological impact of prematurity on brain development but also the interaction with postnatal environmental factors that modulate neurodevelopmental outcomes. Preterm infants frequently encounter medical complications, sensory processing differences, and altered caregiving environments, which together may reshape the SCC developmental trajectory. Identifying these altered pathways is crucial for implementing tailored early intervention strategies.

The study’s longitudinal design, spanning multiple time points during infancy and toddlerhood, captures the nonlinear and sometimes pulsatile nature of SCC development. It challenges the oversimplified notion that neurodevelopment occurs at a steady pace, highlighting instead periods of accelerated growth or plateau phases that could inform timing for clinical surveillance and therapeutic engagement.

Data indicated that while some preterm infants follow trajectories parallel but delayed relative to their term peers, others diverge more significantly, exhibiting slower or flattened growth curves in social communication abilities. This variance hints at underlying biological heterogeneity and raises the critical question of whether distinct subtypes of neurodevelopmental vulnerability exist within preterm populations.

Beyond its scientific implications, this research exemplifies how caregiver-reported data, when methodically harnessed, can complement biological and psychometric measures to provide a more holistic picture of infant development. The study advocates for integrating caregiver-involved digital tools into routine developmental screening and research, especially in populations at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders.

Moreover, the findings illuminate the importance of social communication as a sentinel domain in early development, as its trajectory appears intricately tied to broader cognitive and social health outcomes. This raises exciting potential for SCC measures not only as diagnostic markers but also as intermediary targets for early intervention programs aimed at optimizing neurodevelopmental trajectories.

By leveraging online platforms, the research also holds promise for global scalability, reaching families beyond traditional clinical settings and facilitating data collection in underserved communities. This democratization could catalyze large-scale studies necessary to unravel how genetic, environmental, and socioeconomic factors intertwine to influence early developmental trajectories.

Finally, the study’s methodological approach underscores the power of latent variable models in developmental science. By modeling the unobserved, underlying processes driving observed behavior, researchers can better capture the complexities of human development, avoiding oversimplifications and advancing precision in both understanding and intervention.

In summary, this pioneering work charts latent growth trajectories of social communication cognition, providing a crucial lens through which to understand differential neurodevelopmental outcomes in infants born term and preterm. It bridges methodological innovation with clinical relevance, positioning caregiver-based longitudinal data at the forefront of neurodevelopmental research and early childhood intervention.

As the field continues to embrace technology and data science, studies like this pave the way for personalized, trajectory-informed approaches to supporting children at risk of social, communication, and cognitive impairments. The ultimate goal is a future where early identification paired with precisely timed interventions can change developmental paths, enabling every child to reach their full potential.

Subject of Research: The study focuses on the developmental trajectories of social communication cognition in infants and toddlers born term and preterm, utilizing longitudinal caregiver reports to understand neurodevelopmental vulnerability.

Article Title: Latent social communication cognition growth trajectories of term and preterm infants/toddlers based on caregiver report.

Article References:
Lajiness-O’Neill, R., Berglund, P., Warschausky, S. et al. Latent social communication cognition growth trajectories of term and preterm infants/toddlers based on caregiver report. Pediatr Res (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-025-04112-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41390-025-04112-y

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