Current Projects

Principle Investigators: Lauren Kenworthy- Children’s National Hospital; Laura Anthony- Children's Hospital Colorado

Grant title: Innovative Implementation of a Robust Executive Function Intervention Delivered In Schools

Project Description: Unstuck and On Target is a curriculum targeting executive functioning skills. It’s a set of pre-made small-group lesson plans for 3-5th graders that helps students be flexible, improves student behavior regulation, and creates calmer classrooms. Additionally, a free suite of online parent resources on using Unstuck at home are available on the Unstuck website (https://www.unstuckandontarget.com/). Our goal is to spread these Unstuck resources across the nation!

Who can participate? Closed for recruitment.

Contact: Laura Campos, lcampos@childrensnational.org or Chelsea Armour, aarmour@childrensnational.org

Principle Investigator: Annie Inge- Children's National Hospital

Grant title: ECHO Autism

Project Description: ECHO Autism creates a virtual learning network that aims to "move knowledge, not patients" using a tele-mentoring format that provides access to a hub of autism specialists to support community providers to diagnose, treat and care for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children and their families.

Who can participate? Primary care providers, diagnostic and treatment specialists, and educators and early care providers.

Contact: Chelsea Armour, aarmour@childrensnational.org

Website: https://childrensnational.org/departments/center-for-neuroscience-and-behavioral-medicine/programs-and-services/center-for-autism-spectrum-disorders/resources-for-providers

Principle Investigators: Lauren Kenworthy- Children’s National Hospital; Kevin Pelphrey- University of Virginia; Allison Jack- George Mason University

Grant title: Autism Center of Excellence (ACE) Neurodevelopmental Biomarkers of Late Diagnosis in Female and Gender Diverse Autism

Project Description: Too many people with autism are late-diagnosed or never diagnosed. People assigned female at birth or who are not cisgender are more likely to be late-diagnosed or never diagnosed with autism. The goal of this project is to use surveys, interviews, and artificial intelligence to figure out who what traits make it more likely a person will be diagnosed with autism. A second goal is to make a screening tool that potential late-diagnosed people can use to figure out if they should look into an autism diagnosis. The researchers think this study will improve autism research and clinical practice by making it easier to figure out if teens and adults are autistic.

Who can participate? You can participate in this study if you have an autism diagnosis from CASD or a clinic at Yale, UCLA, or UVA.

Contact: To learn more email autism@childrensnational.org

Principle Investigator: Jenny Mai Phan- Children’s National Hospital

Grant title: Evaluating Autistic Adolescents’ and their Caregiver’s Perceived Utility and Social Validity of an Online Puberty and Sexual Health Education Toolkit

Project Description: We are conducting a research study to better understand how autistic youth and their families can learn together about pubertal development and sexual health. This is an online study. Families will be asked to complete the online puberty and sexual health toolkit and answer questions about their experience with the toolkit. Families will be compensated $100 for their time participating in this study.

Who can participate? We are inviting families with a child/adolescent diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder or who self-identifies as autistic and who is in the 9th to 12th grades or between 14 and 19 years old. Criteria: 14-19 years old, English is primary language (comfortable reading, writing, and speaking), ASD diagnosis (diagnosed by professional or self).

Contact: Jenny Phan, jmphan@childrensnational.org.

Principle Investigators: Armin Raznahan- NIMH IRP; Srishti Rau- Children’s National Hospital

Grant title: Section on Developmental Neurogenomics

Project Description: Sex Chromosome Aneuploidies (SCAs) arise when someone has an atypical number of X and/or Y-chromosomes beyond the expected female (XX) or male (XY) chromosomes. These conditions are associated with an increased risk for developmental difficulties impacting thinking and behavior. Our study aims to better understand the neurobiology of SCAs to provide insights into the biology of sex-differences, genetic regulation of brain organization, and mechanisms of genetic risk for common psychiatric syndromes. We do this by completing comprehensive evaluations with individuals with SCA and their family members including brain MRI, cognitive testing, psychiatric assessment, and autism assessment.

Who can participate? 5-25 year olds with a range of X and Y variations (e.g., XXY, XYY, XXX, XXYY).

Contact: For further information, please contact Jonathan Blumenthal, MA, at 301-435-4516 or jb364e@nih.gov

Principle Investigators: Lauren Kenworthy- Children’s National Hospital, Benjamin Yerys- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Grant title: A longitudinal study identifying psychological and service delivery targets to improve daily living skills and quality of life outcomes among transition-age autistic youth.

Project Description: This study looks at how self-determination skills and executive functioning (problem solving and planning) might influence daily living skills (taking care of oneself, taking care of a living space, and getting around in the community), and how changes in self-care, domestic, and community skills influence autistic individuals' quality of life as they transition out of high school.

Who can participate? Autistic teens/young adults who are in their last two years of either high school or a transition program and have an FSIQ > 50

Contact: Kat Sharp, ksharp@childrensnational.org or Laura Campos, lcampos@childrensnational.org

Principle Investigator: Gabriela Rosenblau- George Washington University

Grant title: Modeling Social and Non-Social Learning in Autism

Project Description: This project looks at social and non-social decision making in children, adolescents, and adults with and without autism on behavioral and neural levels.  The study will assess decision making in a social and non-social context. 

Who can participate? Autistic and neurotypical youth ages 7-17

Contact: Chelsea Armour, aarmour@childrensnational.org

Principle Investigators: Lauren Kenworthy- Children’s National Hospital; Chandan Vaidya- Georgetown University 

Grant title: Intervention-Induced Plasticity of Flexibility and Learning Mechanisms in ASD

Project Description: This project is examining how the autistic adolescents learn new things and how their learning impacts executive function outcomes. This project includes MRI imaging in collaboration with the Vaidya lab at Georgetown University and the Unstuck & On Target: High School (UOT:HS) group. UOT:HS targets executive function skills necessary for the transition to adulthood.

Who can participate? Autistic teens, ages 14-18, with average or above average cognitive abilities, with no metal in their body

Contact: Andrea Lopez, alopez4@childrensnational.org

Principle Investigator: Cara Pugliese- Children’s National Hospital

Grant title: A Hybrid Effectiveness-Implementation Trial of a School-Based Executive Function Treatment for Transition Aged Youth with Autism

Project Description: This study is an upward extension of the Unstuck & On Target curriculum used in elementary schools. UOT:HS targets executive function skills necessary for the transition to adulthood. UOT:HS was previously studied in 11 D.C. Metro-area schools, and found that students receiving UOT:HS were more flexible, goal-directed, and had better emotion regulation skills in the classroom and adaptive skills at home compared to those receiving traditional IEP supports at school. Schools liked the curriculum content, found it easy to deliver, and continued to use it. The present study seeks to confirm these findings with a larger number of students with autism across the D.C. Metro area. We want to study which students benefit from UOT:HS, and how to make implementing UOT:HS easy and sustainable. By listening to and observing different teaching styles, we will create best-practice guidelines for delivering UOT:HS, promoting sustainability, and encouraging spread across school districts.

Who can participate? Students who are enrolled in High School and have the cognitive and behavioral capacity to benefit and understand the Unstuck material. Participants need to be able to communicate about events that happened in the past or will happen in the future, and participate in small group activities and discussions about things they want to achieve at school, what they want to do after graduation, and what their hopes are for the future. They must either exhibit traits of autism, or be receiving any kind of support/service for autism, or have a clinical diagnosis of autism.

Contact: Hannah Behar, hbehar@childrensnational.org

Principle Investigator: Allison Ratto- Children’s National Hospital

Grant title: Development and Pilot Testing of a Novel Preschool Executive Function Curriculum (1320)

Project Description: Unstuck and On Target for Early Childhood is an intervention aimed at promoting executive functioning skills in preschool and early childhood students with executive function challenges and developmental disabilities.

Who can participate? Students with executive functioning challenges who are able to benefit and understand the curriculum. No formal diagnosis is needed.

Contact: Julianna McKenna, jmmckenna@childrensnational.org