The National Institutes of Health has awarded Dr. Harrop a $3.28 million, five-year R01 research grant to chart the impact of assigned sex at birth on developmental trajectories in young autistic children. The project will help characterize how development in autism varies by assigned sex with the goal of informing future sex-sensitive screening protocols and providing evidence for sex- and gender-sensitive interventions that better address the needs of autistic females. The lab, with collaborators in Psychology and Neuroscience (Daniel Bauer) and Psychiatry (Heather Hazlett and Rebecca Grzadzinski), will study the developmental trajectories of young autistic females and males, as well as non-autistic males and females, using multiple methods (direct observation, parent report, eye tracking) within an accelerated longitudinal design.
In addition to studying how assigned sex contributes to trajectories in autism, our team will study how gender impacts development and will be collaborating with John Strang at Children’s National to study how sex and gender together impact development in autism. The lab will continue our existing collaborations with Julia Parish Morris (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia) to also chart the emergence of camouflaging behaviors in autism.
Recruitment for the study will begin in early 2022.