Description

Researchers at the University of Connecticut
are looking for pregnant mothers and mothers with infants to participate in two
research initiatives that will follow the development of infant siblings of
children with autism over the first two years of life.

These studies are being conducted by Deborah
Fein, a UConn Board of Trustees distinguished professor of psychology and
nationally-recognized leader in autism research, and Anjana Bhat, an assistant
professor in UConn's Neag School of Education who studies developmental
disorders in infants and children.

The UConn IRB has approved these studies,
Protocol #'s: H08-234 and H08-111.

Who Can Participate

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

• 
  Professor Fein and her
  research 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 Assistant Professor Bhat's lab twice or someone from the lab will
  visit your home twice when your infant in 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.
• 
  You will receive a few
  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.
• 
  If
  you live far away and we cannot drive to you, you can still participate in our
  research study via skype videochat sessions and by filling out parent
  questionnaires.  We will provide you a
  testing kit to accomplish the web-based assessments at each age.

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