RISE

In this study, we are interested in understanding how infants learn about their world from their response to child-friendly videos they can watch at home. For example, we know from studies in the lab that many babies enjoy looking at social stimuli and are able to remember faces they have seen before. In this study, we are testing to see what we can learn about your babies cognitive development at home. This work may help us identify children with developmental delays in the future. To participate, you and your baby will watch a series of videos on your home computer. We will also ask you to answer questions about your child’s development.

What are the goals of the study?

We want to understand how babies look at and learn from the patterns in the world around them. This is part of a larger study we are running to understand how typically developing babies might learn about their world in different ways than babies with developmental delays.

What will happen during the visit or online?

In this study, your baby will see a series of videos while we record how they respond. These videos include children playing, geometric figures, objects, and patterns. After the videos, we will ask you to complete some surveys within the LookIt platform, and some will be sent to you later. These surveys are common in infant research and cover many different areas of development. You can follow the links below to learn more about each survey. Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (CSBS) Infant-Toddler Checklist measures the social communication, expression of speech and language, and symbolic abilities of children ages 6 months to 2 years. MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories measures communication and language development in babies and toddlers from 8 to 37 months (about 3 years) of age. Motor-Libertus Early Motor Questionnaire (EMQ) measures the development of early motor skills (such as raising and holding their own head, rolling over, and crawling) in infants and toddlers. Vinland and Adaptive Behavior Scale (VABS) measures communication and social relationships in infants and toddlers to understand home and family-life behaviors. Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers (M-CHAT) (only at completed for 18-month-old children) screens for signs of autism spectrum disorder in toddlers.

How will this help families?

This work may help us identify children with developmental delays in the future.

We are inviting autistic adults who have limited verbal communication to participate in a research study that includes 12 weeks of therapy. This would be helpful for people who are struggling with “feeling down”, which can be seen as low or sad mood, change in motivation to participate in activities, and change in sleep. 1-2 people who support the adult would join in the therapy to provide support and learn, as well.

What are the goals of the study?

This study is adapting a mental health treatment for people with intellectual disability to meet the needs of minimally verbal autistic adults.

What will happen during the visit or online?

The participant will complete 12 therapy sessions and assessment visits to check in how they are doing along the way. The 1-2 people who come with them to support and learn will also participate

How will this help families?

This study is about a mental health treatment for minimally verbal autistic adults.

My name is Samri and I am a research participant recruiter from Miami University’s Later Language Development Lab. I am reaching out to you today with the opportunity to contribute to our NIH-supported research on the development of a social communication assessment tool which targets adolescents and young adults at the age of transition. We are currently seeking participants between the ages of 14 and 21 years old with a native proficiency in English and typical hearing. We are asking that participants meet one-on-one with a member of our research team for 1-1.5 hours via Zoom to answer a series of interview questions which probe their knowledge of how to communicate in different contexts. After, the participant will be paid the sum of $30-50 via Zelle for their involvement. This study is being conducted by Dr. Trace Poll from the Speech Pathology and Audiology Department at Miami University alongside Jan Petru from Elmhurst University, who is acting as our clinical consultant for the study.

What are the goals of the study?

Specifically, we are continuing research on our development of a social communication assessment tool tailored to adolescents and young adults preparing for the transition from high school to post-school contexts. This tool that we are developing is called the Transition Pragmatics Interview (or the TPI).

What will happen during the visit or online?

This commitment includes the signing of a consent form, the completion of a brief history form, and a 1-1.5 hour meeting via Zoom to answer interview questions probing their knowledge of how to communicate in different situational contexts.

How will this help families?

The information from this project provides information on the degree to which the TPI is a valid and reliable measure of social communication. Speech-language pathologists, special educators and related professionals currently lack assessment instruments that address the population and contexts targeted by the TPI. The project will indicate how the TPI may improve on clinical judgment, or the findings of instruments less targeted to the needs of adolescents and young adults with disabilities in transition programs. Fundamentally, the results will indicate how the TPI may be refined in order to become a more valid and reliable measure.

The GEMMA (Genome, Environment, Microbiome, and Metabolome in Autism) project aims to understand the many factors that contribute to the development of autism in children who have an autistic sibling.

What are the goals of the study?

The GEMMA project aims to understand how genes, the environment, gut bacteria, and the digestion of food may relate to the development of autism.

What will happen during the visit or online?

  1. Online surveys about food, health, and behavior,
  2. Behavioral assessments (on Zoom) every 6 months from ages 1 to 3,
  3. Periodic saliva, urine, stool, and blood samples (done at home/locally) until age 3,
  4. One time samples from one or both biological parents and from the sibling with ASD

How will this help families?

Your family will be contributing to research that aims to help improve the early diagnosis of autism, as well as understand the GI symptoms associated with autism. All infant participants will receive early developmental assessments from study psychologists.

The current study will be conducted by a research team at the University of Maryland College Park, via Zoom and aims to teach peer type family members (PFM) such as siblings or cousins of autistic children/youth to use video prompting to support daily living skills. The primary aim of the study is to examine the PFM fidelity of implementation using a single-case design across 10 child-family member dyads. The secondary aim is to examine the effects of PFM-implemented video prompting on daily living skills of children or youth with autism using a single-case design across the same 10 dyads. The third aim of the study is to descriptively analyze the social validity of the intervention by having the participants complete an anonymous survey (for caregivers) or a Zoom session (for child/youth and the PFM). The findings will provide implications for family-involved learning of daily living skills using virtual coaching in natural settings. This study is important because autistic children and youth have benefited from step-by-step directions to learn daily routines including mealtime, brushing teeth, or doing laundry or dishes. For example, video prompting has been shown to be effective to introduce cooking, academic, functional, and social skills. Previous research shows that peer-type family members (PFM) such as siblings successfully implement interventions to support diverse skills for autistic children/youth. Thus, the use of PFM-implemented video prompting could be beneficial to support the daily living skills of children or youth with autism.

What are the goals of the study?

The study attempts to teach PFMs of autistic children/youth to use video prompting to support daily living skills. The main goal is to examine the PFM fidelity of implementation using a single-case design across 10 child-family member dyads. The secondary aim is to examine the effects of PFM-implemented video prompting on daily living skills of the same children/youth with autism. Finally, the study descriptively analyzes the social validity of the intervention by interviewing the participants.

What will happen during the visit or online?

The study will take place via Zoom for approximately 3 months with 2-3 sessions per week and the following procedure: • 5-minute questionnaire • 5-10 minutes observation of the child engaging in the everyday skills (about 1-2 weeks) • 20-minute training for PFM to use video-based learning (about 2-3 weeks) • 20-minute session for observation of, and feedback for child and PFM (about 3-4 weeks) • 5-minute observation of the child/youth engaging in everyday skills (about 1-3 times) after the training is over • 5-minute survey for caregiver, and 10-minute Zoom session with child/youth and PFM to ask for feedback about the research process

How will this help families?

We hope to better understand how peer type family members such as siblings or cousins could participate in home-based daily living skills learning and practice for autistic individuals using video clips and video prompting. Specifically, we want to understand how family members can receive training via a virtual platform, and implement the intervention to fidelity. Additionally, we want to examine how effective it is for a sibling or a cousin to facilitate video-based learning of daily living skills on the autistic individual’s outcome. Finally, we want to understand how feasible and relevant these training and intervention strategies are for caregivers, autistic individuals, and their peer type family members.

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The purpose of this study is to understand the healthcare experiences of both non-autistic and autistic adults as well as their related needs. Participants that support adult family members at healthcare appointments will have the option to answer additional questions.

What are the goals of the study?

To improve education to reduce healthcare disparity and to offer guidance on universal design as well as accessibility.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Take an online survey

How will this help families?

Improve education for healthcare professionals and office workers

The genetic changes we study in TIGER3 have been connected with autism and developmental disabilities, but we are just beginning to learn how those changes might affect each person and family differently, and what effects might be shared versus unique across those genetic variants. By learning more about the shared and unique effects of these rare variants, we aim to contribute to (1) better understanding of co-occurring medical and behavioral conditions, and (2) development of individualized supports for affected individuals and their families.

What are the goals of the study?

In the TIGER research study, we are learning more about individuals with genetic events associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability (ID), and/or developmental delay (DD). We hope to better understand and describe how different gene changes influence the development, behavior, and experiences of children and adults. Individuals with these genetic changes may have neurodevelopmental differences that we would like to better understand.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Eligible families participate in a consent phone call, and are then invited to complete a series of video- or phone calls to assess for autism-associated features, adaptive skills, cognitive skills, and medical history. Caregivers are also invited to complete a variety of online questionnaires, including measures of adaptive behavior, treatment history, sleep habits, gastrointestinal symptoms, social-emotional functioning, and executive function. Biospecimen (blood or saliva) collection is completed remotely. Finally, families are offered a feedback session with a clinician and a written report of standardized measures and recommendations.

How will this help families?

Families will be compensated $100 for their participation. Participants may receive feedback about their family’s genetic event(s). Families will also receive written and/or verbal feedback regarding adaptive behavior, social communication skills, language skills, and cognitive skills as available from completed study activities.

By learning more about how the ASD brain in children, we can help establish ways to identify and intervene in ASD early. If ASD is identified at young ages, resources such as social supports can bolster long-term adaptive functioning in children with ASD. Also, increased understanding about the mechanisms that underlie atypical social functioning in ASD will allow science to develop targeted, effective assistance for these youth as early as possible.

What are the goals of the study?

This project aims to further understand what makes the brains of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) unique. Specifically, this study is interested in helping us understand how neural processes in the developing ASD brain contribute to atypical social functioning. A promising new method of assessing brain activity called “phase-amplitude coupling” will be measured via non-invasive electroencephalogram (EEG) technology.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Both children who do and do not have ASD will be invited to participate in an EEG, play computer games during the EEG, and fill out self-report questionnaires with the help of a trained researcher. Parents of participating children will also fill out related surveys. This study is comprised of two visits spaced out over several months.

How will this help families?

Increased understanding about the mechanisms that underlie atypical social functioning in ASD will allow science to develop targeted, effective assistance for these youth as early as possible.

Social interaction during early childhood is a critical component of development. This project explores these interactions during play among children with and without autism spectrum disorder to better understand how children learn to engage with their environment and the people around them. The results of this project may lend itself to improving early screening, diagnosis, and intervention processes for young children with autism spectrum disorder and their families.

What are the goals of the study?

The goal of this project is to explore the early visual experiences of children during social play with their parents and how these interactions may influence different aspects of their development, such as language and cognition.

What will happen during the visit or online?

You and your child will be asked to play with a set of toys for approximately 5 minutes while wearing head-mounted eye-trackers. Depending on your child’s age, your child will also be asked to complete: the ADOS-2 (a gold-standard autism diagnostic test; 12mo and older), an IQ test (12mo and older), a motor assessment (18mo or younger), and/or two vocabulary tests (30mo or older).

How will this help families?

Families will receive a free summary of their child’s assessment results (autism diagnosis, vocabulary, motor skills, and/or Q) along with an Amazon gift card, family passes to the Children’s Museum of Houston, and a gift-bundle (toys, books, crayons, T-shirt, etc). We hope this project will ultimately assist in improving early screening, diagnosis, and intervention processes for infants and toddlers that may have autism spectrum disorder.

While there have been large-scale genetic analyses of autism spectrum disorder, there have been little efforts to investigate this in Hispanics and Latina/Latino populations (henceforth Latinx), the largest minority population in the United States. Inclusion of under-represented populations in genetic studies is important both for scientific reasons and for equity. The genetic architecture of ASD is complex and ongoing efforts to decipher it have focused on both common and rare genetic variants and investigating whether the genetic architecture differs across ancestral populations is important in order to have informed care and risk factors for underrepresented groups.

What are the goals of the study?

The central purpose of this project is to collect genetic and phenotypic information about childhood psychiatric conditions, with the aim of finding links between core symptoms, cognitive ability, and underlying neurobiological mechanisms. To better understand and investigate the genetic risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in people through observation of its genetic architecture across ancestral populations. Specifically, we aim to further our understanding of ASD in Hispanic/Latinx populations, the largest minority population in the U.S. and an admixed population.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Participating in the study typically requires two in-person visits, one for an autism evaluation and one for IQ testing and DNA Collection. The DNA Collection can either be a blood draw or saliva collection; we collect DNA from the person affected with ASD and two biological family members. Furthermore, there is a zoom interview between a clinician and parent for our children participants and online forms that must be filled out. Families will be compensated $100 and will receive a report of the assessments completed.

How will this help families?

Families will be able to receive a report of all assessments done and receive compensation. Receiving an appointment for an autism evaluation and updated reports can often take several months to years, while here it takes a couple of weeks. Our reports can be often used for school or to apply to additional services. Adding on, our coordinator speaks Spanish which can often aid families that don’t speak English and helps remove that barrier to care. Furthermore, this will help families in the future by investigating risk factors in the development of ASD which can help inform clinical care for diverse populations.

The Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials (ABC-CT) is a multicenter research study led by Yale that also includes Duke University, Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles , and the University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Research Institute. The aim of the consortium is to develop reliable and objective measurements of social function and communication in children on the autism spectrum.

What are the goals of the study?

The aim of the consortium is to develop reliable and objective measurements of social function and communication in children on the autism spectrum.

What will happen during the visit or online?

Caregivers will complete a screening phone call and questionnaires about their child. Children will complete in-person study visits at Boston Children’s Hospital over a 6 month period. Scheduling is flexible including weekends.

How will this help families?

Currently, ASD is diagnosed and treated based on information gathered from clinical assessments and parent questionnaires. ABC-CT will add to this pool of knowledge by developing a more objective battery of tools to measure social function.