There is substantial evidence that signs of psychopathology may appear very early in child development. A comprehensive evaluation of the child early development seems to be essential in order to implement prevention and early intervention strategies. This study aims to identify some specific elements of early development that could alert of a potential risk of developmental disorder, as well as particular elements of the development of infants subsequently diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) or with developmental disorder (other than PDD). In a first moment, we evaluated the cognitive and socio-emotional development, in particular signs of social withdrawal and of autism, of 20 infants between 12 and 24 months of age. Three specific tools were used: the SCEB (“Social Cognitive Evaluation Battery”, Adrien, 2007), the ADBB (« Alarm Distress Baby Scale », Guédeney et Fermanian, 2001), and the IBSE (« Infant Behavioral Summarized Evaluation » Sauvage, 1988; Adrien, et al., 1989, 1992). Four sub-groups of children were identified, distinguished by three characteristics appearing to be the most distinctive: developmental level, heterogeneity of socio-emotional development, and signs of autism. In a second stage, from 10 to 32 months later, a diagnostic evaluation was performed for half of our population. This evaluation enabled to establish specific developmental trajectories, for each of our four sub-groups. Results show that the presence and the number of developmental criteria (among the three identified), along with the type of criteria, in early development, might inform of the probability of developing (or not) a disorder, as well as the kind of disorder that could possibly be further developed. Furthermore, some of the data about the development and the behavior of infants subsequently diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) or with developmental disorder seem to be characteristics.
