The National Institutes of Health has awarded Dr. Harrop a $3.28 million, five-year R01 research grant to chart the impact of biological sex on developmental trajectories in young autistic children. The project will help characterize how development in autism varies by sex with the goal of informing future screening protocols and providing evidence for sex-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.
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.