Its official! UWAC researchers Steve Dager, Annette Estes, and Tanya St. John have been awarded funding by NIH for another 5 years to continue their longitudinal research on younger siblings of children with autism. Our UWAC team is part of the Infant Brain Imaging Network (IBIS), a nation-wide network headed by University of North Carolina who has compiled detailed information on brain development and behavior for children at high risk for ASD. The researchers found that brain growth of infants later diagnosed with ASD can be predictive of which infants later develop ASD. With the new award, the researchers will follow these children who started the study at 3-6 months of age through ages 7 to 10 years to determine how their brains change as they grow and the potential effects of ASD on learning and social development. Based on what they learn, they aim to develop interventions tailored to school-age children with ASD. See this link for more information!