ACE GENDER

Autism Center of Excellence: Gender and Diagnostic Equity Research network

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

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

Project Description: Too many autistic people are late-diagnosed or never diagnosed. People assigned female at birth or who are gender diverse are more likely to be missed for an autism diagnosis. The goal of this project is to use data from surveys, interviews, and cognitive and neuroimaging* tasks to figure out what traits make it more likely a person will be missed for an autism diagnosis. 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 

*Neuroimaging includes brain scans 

Who can participate? You can participate in this study if you have an autism diagnosis from the Center for Autism (formerly CASD) or a clinic at Yale, UCLA, or UVA and are 16-30 years old.

Contact: Max Gershefski, mgershefsk@childrensnational.org or Chloe Neuman, cneuman@childrensnational.org