Autism Study for School-Aged Children

The Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials (ABC-CT) is a multicenter research study to develop better ways of measuring social skills in children diagnosed with autism. The aim is to develop reliable and objective measurements of social function and communication in autistic people to help improve diagnosis and treatment.

We are currently recruiting both typically developing children and children with a diagnosis of autism between the ages of 6 and 11 years old.

Participation in the ABC-CT Study involves the following:

Children and their parents will visit the McPartland Lab at Yale University for six separate in-person visits across a 6-month period. There are three timepoints, which are baseline visits, visits 6 weeks later, and visits 6 months later. At each timepoint, we ask families to come in for 2 half day visits to our lab.

Children will complete cognitive and diagnostic testing on the first day at each timepoint. They will also be asked to complete a brief eye-tracking session where they will watch videos on a computer screen while we measure their gaze. On the second day, children will participate in an EEG session where they look at images on a computer screen while their brain waves are recorded through a special cap placed on their head.

Parents are asked to complete a set of parent interviews at each timepoint.

For this study, we also ask children with an autism diagnosis and biological parents to provide a blood sample.

Families are provided with a feedback session at the baseline and 6 months visit to review their child’s test scores, recommendations in moving forward, and to help answer any questions. They will also receive a written report. Compensation of $100 is provided at the end of each timepoint ($300 total).

The data collected as part of this consortium will be a valuable resource for the autism community. The goal of the study is to create a set of measures that can be used in clinical trials to determine which treatments are best for which children and who will benefit from a particular intervention. The ultimate goal is to validate a set of tools that will enable clinicians to objectively measure and predict how children on the spectrum respond to intervention.