Category: Children, Families, & Development

Clare Harrop Receives 5-Year NIH Award to Study Sex-Specific Trajectories in Autism Spectrum Disorder
Clare Harrop, Assistant Professor in the Department of Allied Health Sciences, has received a 5-year, $3.28 million R01 award from the NIH (Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development) to chart the impact of assigned sex at birth on developmental trajectories in young autistic children. The objective of the project is to characterize how deve … Continued

Hospitalizations for Pediatric Opioid Use Disorders: Exploring Racial Disparities among US regions
Exposure to prescription opioids in the pediatric population is an important public health concern. Opioid hospitalizations among US children and adolescents have doubled in the last decade. There is an urgent need to better characterize the opioid epidemic in all pediatric populations, across different racial groups and regions in the United States. However, research on pediatri … Continued

Disparities in Health Care Access and Utilization of Children during Autism Insurance Reform
The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has increased rapidly in recent years. At the same time, comprehensive ASD insurance reform laws have been enacted through legislation or administrative mandates in most US states since 2006. Legislation targeted toward private insurance was designed to facilitate access to and coverage of integrated medical and behavioral health s … Continued

Tar Heel Shared Reader Implementation Project
The purpose of the proposed Tar Heel Shared Reader implementation project is to develop products and services that support the implementation of shared reading with school-aged students with significant cognitive disabilities (SCD) who do not yet read with comprehension. Tar Heel Shared Reader combines the library of age and ability appropriate books in Tar Heel Reader with a new … Continued

Evaluation of a Novel Intervention for Infants at Risk for Neurodevelopmental Disorders Evaluation of a Novel Intervention for Infants at Risk for Neurodevelopmental Disorders
Our current ability to detect infants at-risk for neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs) such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) that cannot be readily identified through screening for biological markers offers several unique opportunities for understanding the emergence of ND symptoms. Particularly important is the opportunity to test the extent to which very early interventions may … Continued

Auditory Behaviors of Children with Significant Cognitive Disabilities
School hearing screenings have the potential to identify children with hearing impairments not identified at birth. Students with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities, known in US public schools as students with significant cognitive disabilities (SCD), are at higher risk for hearing loss than children without disabilities (JCIH, 2007). Yet this group of students is … Continued

Hearing Screening of Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities
The purpose of this project, Hearing Screening and Audiological Assessment for Students with Significant Cognitive Disability, is to conduct school-based hearing screenings and audiological assessments of students with significant cognitive disabilities (SCD). Many students with SCD cannot use speech or have disabilities that compromise their ability to see, hear and/or move. Giv … Continued

Pathways to Auditory Processing Differences in ASDPathways to Auditory Processing Differences in ASD
Funded through an Autism Speaks Grant, we are using EEG to understand the emergence of auditory processing deficits/differences in infants at risk for ASD. Contact Person Clare Harrop, principal investigator, clare_harrop@med.unc.edu Investigators and Key Personnel Clare Harrop Linda Watson Aysenil Belger Alana Campbell Primary Funding Source Autism Speaks

Role of Rehabilitation in Concussion Management: A Randomized, Controlled Trial
We propose a randomized clinical trial to yield preliminary data on the added benefits of active rehabilitation during recovery after sport-related concussion in professional and amateur athletes. This trial marks an international collaborative effort involving the NFL, CFL, New Zealand Rugby, American Hockey League, and academic researchers in the United States. Specific Aims: T … Continued

Advancing Social-communication and Play (ASAP): An Intervention Program for Preschoolers with Autism
The primary aim of the Advancing Social-communication And Play (ASAP) intervention is to promote the social-communication and play skills of preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) being served in public preschool programs. The ASAP grant project was a four-year, multisite study funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education was to exam … Continued