Projects Overview
Currently Recruiting
Ready to CONNECT: Conversation and Language in Autistic Teens
Autism contains a puzzling conundrum: Although 70% of autistic individuals demonstrate age-appropriate language and cognitive abilities on standardized tests, they nonetheless experience significant communication challenges during everyday interactions. In this project, we study adolescents with and without autism, as they interact with peers. This recently-funded NIDCD study combines traditional standardized language tests with innovative psycholinguistic measures derived from spontaneous natural conversations to develop profiles of communication strengths and weaknesses that can be used to inform personalized interventions focused on improving conversational success. More information here.
Please contact Sarah Schillinger if interested in learning more about this study.
Flyer_CHOP_online.pdfSAGA Study
The goal of this research study is to investigate gender development and sex differences between children who are on the autism spectrum and children who are not on the autism spectrum. This study is in collaboration with PI Clare Harrop at UNC.
Please contact Amanda Lee if interested in participating or learning more about this study.
SAGA Flyer.pdfSocial Coordination Study- R01
How we communicate – our body language, tone, expression – says just as much as our words. This study compares how people with different backgrounds and medical conditions use language and non-verbal methods to interact.
Please contact the Social Coordination team at carmotorlab@chop.edu or Meg Lyons if interested in learning more about this study.
CHOP Social Communication Research Flyer.pdfOngoing Studies
LENA Study
This study is intending to determine if infant vocalizations predict subsequent autism diagnosis and later language and social communication scores, and to specify the relationship between caregiver speech and infant communication skills. The proposed study will determine if multivariate caregiver speech is related to targeted prefrontal and temporal brain regions. By determining if caregiver speech can have a protective effect on brain development, we forge a new scientific approach to studying communication development in infants at high-risk for autism.
This study is seeking to identify infant-based language and communication risk markers, caregiver-based intervention targets, and brain-based monitoring biomarkers to guide presymptomatic intervention for autism that is parent-mediated and delivered in the natural setting.
This study is working in collaboration with PI Meghan Swanson at University of Minnesota & the IBIS Network as a part of their IBIS-Early Prediction Study (IBIS-EP).
Please contact Sarah Schillinger if interested in participating or learning more about this study.
Recently Completed
Vocal Biomarkers Study
The goal of this research study is to identify unique characteristics in the way kids and teens with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) speak in comparison to typically developing peers.
Please contact Meg Lyons if interested in learning more about this study.
VBM Flyer.pdfFloreo VR Intervention Study
This study is a randomized controlled trial study intended to determine the efficacy of a virtual reality-based intervention aimed at improving police safety skills in autistic individuals.
Please contact Amanda Lee if interested in learning more about this study.
VR Study Flyer.pdfFloreo Survey Study
The purpose of this research study is to understand how individuals with ASD and their parents feel about police officers, and how police officers feel about interacting with autistic individuals.
Please contact Amanda Lee if interested in learning more about this study.
Focus Group Flyer.pdfMRI Study for ASD Siblings- Early Life Language
This study uses linguistic and fMRI data from the IBIS Network to find specific vocalization characteristics that differentiate infants later diagnosed with ASD from other children. In collaboration with IBIS.
Please contact Sarah Schillinger if interested in learning more about this study.