Researchers and research staff involved in the EMERGE: Early Markers of Expressive and Receptive Language Growth in Ethnically Diverse Autistic Toddlers project at UNC-Chapel Hill will engage in parallel work that is being conducted at UCLA. Equal numbers of children will be recruited at each site (n ~ 70). Further, a combination of parent report measures, observational measures, child administered assessments, and neurophysiological data (i.e., EEG) will be collected on each child at three time points. These measures will primarily be completed in the families’ homes unless the family prefers that the battery of measures be completed in the clinic setting. In addition to recruitment and data collection efforts, the UNC site also will be involved in project dissemination activities such as conference presentations and journal publications. Finally, UCLA will serve as the data management site and the UNC site will submit their data to UCLA via a web-based data management system. FPG Director Brian Boyd, PhD, will serve as the site PI for UNC and will oversee all research activities for this site.

Learn more about this study in the FPG news story, "EMERGE study to explore language trajectories of low-income, ethnically diverse children with autism."