By Marion Davis
Contributing Writer
PROVIDENCE – Researchers at the Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk at Women & Infants Hospital have been awarded a two-year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health – part of the National Institutes of Health – to study infants at risk for autism.
For the study, researchers Stephen Sheinkopf and Amy Salisbury will enroll pregnant mothers who have an older child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), looking for signs in the womb and after birth indicating the infant will also be autistic.
The risk for autism tends to run in families, so the siblings of autistic children are considered to be at risk for the disorder.
Recent research on high-risk infants who have an older sibling with ASD has identified potential signs of autism by early infancy, such as poor social attention, social responsiveness and eye contact.
Sheinkopf and his colleagues will evaluate responses to social sounds in the pre- and postnatal period, responses to a newborn behavioral exam, and atypical features in cry sounds elicited at birth, among other things.
The goal is to lay the groundwork for developmental follow-up of the at-risk infants and provide pilot data to support a more extensive study of this kind.
Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island is a member of the Care New England health care network and the Brown University Medical School’s primary teaching affiliate for obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics. To learn more, visit www.WomenAndInfants.org.
