Autism Spectrum Disorder is a group of conditions that can have a devastating and significant impact on the lives of children and their families. Unfortunately, although developmental problems in children with autism emerge in the second year of life, reliable diagnosis is challenging until children are 2 to 3 years of age or later. This leaves many families “in limbo” as they seek diagnostic clarification. Moreover, indicators of risk for autism in infancy are very limited, and there are no formal screening tools for this development period.

The development of very early screening for autism would open new doors for treatment and prevention, with the potential to improve long-term outcomes. There are significant challenges for the validation of early infant indicators of autism risk, including questions of which risk markers are most promising as well significant logistical hurdles for sample ascertainment and follow up. This study, “Neonatal cry acoustics and neurobehavioral characteristics as early markers of risk for autism spectrum disorder,” funded by a grant from the NIH National Institute of Mental Health (Dr. Sheinkopf, Principal Investigator) addresses these challenges by using a novel set of biobehavioral measures including the NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scales and infant cry acoustics as predictors of later autism status is being conducted in collaboration with the Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute birth cohort with diagnostic outcomes assessed at 36 months.

The aim of this study is to determine the unique and combined utility of neurobehavioral functioning and infant cry acoustics as predictors of later autism diagnosis in combination with genetic/familial risk and later developmental screening and surveillance.