Mothers with Infants Invited to Participate in Two Autism Studies

Attention pregnant moms or moms of young infants!

You and your infant are invited to participate in two research studies that follow the development of infant siblings of children with autism over the first two years of life. These studies are led by Dr. Deborah Fein and Dr. Anjana Bhat.

The UConn IRB has approved these studies, Protocol H08-234 and H08-111.

Who can participate?

1. 1.     Younger siblings of children with autism between 16 and 30 months of age may be eligible to participate in the Early Detection Sibling Study.

2. Infant siblings of children with autism between 3 and 12 months of age may be eligible to participate in the Infant Learning Study and may continue to participate in the Early Detection Sibling Study after 16 months of age.

What the Early Detection Sibling Study Involves:

Dr. Fein and her team are studying the use of a developmental screener to see how well it works with younger siblings of children with an autism spectrum disorder. Parents of eligible younger siblings will complete developmental questionnaires for their younger child when he/she is aged 18 months and 24 months.  Parents will also be asked to complete a behavioral questionnaire for their older child. Some families will be given a follow-up phone interview and asked to come to the University of Connecticut-Storrs to receive a free developmental and diagnostic evaluation.

What the Infant Learning Study Involves:

You and your infant will visit our lab twice or we will visit you twice when your infant is 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 months for a total of 10 visits. Each visit lasts 1-1.5 hours. You and your infant will participate in a number of play-oriented, structured activities. If you live faraway and we cannot drive to you, you can still participate in our research study via a skype videochat session and by filling out parent questionnaires. We will provide you a testing kit at the beginning of the study and a technology training session before the web-based assessment at each age. You will receive three questionnaires to follow-up on your child’s development when your child is 18 and 24 months. A researcher may also conduct a phone interview to confirm your responses.

How you can help:

You can help by volunteering for the studies.  If you have questions on the Early Detection Sibling Study, please call the study office at (860) 486-5767. If you have questions on the Infant Learning Study, please call the Infant Development Lab at (860) 486-0019 or email to anjana.bhat@uconn.edu