Possibilities of Studying the “Revival Complex” in the Early Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders and the Identification of the Risk of Their Formation

The research studies the possibilities to identify the earliest precursors of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The authors analyze the existing diagnostic tools sensitive to detecting the risk of their formation during a child’s infancy. It is stated that these diagnostic methods insufficiently use the possibilities of a systemic assessment of the first forms of a child’s interaction with the immediate environment, in which a combination of difficulties of their affective and social development is found in the most vivid form. It is suggested that a form of behavior that fully reflects such adaptive capabilities of the infant as the degree of responsiveness, endurance, and activity in contact with the environment may be a “revival complex.” The research is based on ideas about the early stages and patterns of normal and impaired mental development, the importance of affective development disorders in autism, and the most significant early markers of distorted dysontogenesis. The novelty of the diagnostic approach described in the research is reflected in the system of assessing the features of the child’s mental development and the specifics of the early forms of a child’s interaction with the immediate environment through the analysis of such a significant phenomenon of mental ontogenesis as the “revival complex.” An algorithm for retrospective structured analysis of video recordings of infant behavior is presented for the first time. Based on the modification of the communication diagnostic methodology. The authors propose parameters for assessing the specifics of the manifestation of the main components of the revival complex and their dynamics. The data of a pilot comparative study of the recovery complex in infants who were later diagnosed with ASD (35 children), normotypic children (25 infants), and children with delayed development (25 infants) are discussed. The authors conclude that there are specific features in the intensity and quality of the manifestation of individual components of the revival complex, their combination and dynamics with distorted dysontogenesis, making it possible to use the developed diagnostic technique to determine the risk of ASD formation. The research results can be used to improve diagnostic tools sensitive to detecting early trends in the formation of ASD. The identification of these trends during infancy creates conditions for the earliest possible start of targeted correctional care for a child, accompanying their family and preventing the development of the most severe variants of distorted dysontogenesis.