Florida State University Receives $1.4 Million Grant for Autism Research

As many as 1 in 150 children could have an autism spectrum disorder. Few will be diagnosed early, and most of these children will be diagnosed when they're getting ready to start kindergarten. In a recent press release, Florida State University announced that they have received a $1.4 million grant for autism research.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control awarded the grant which will be paid over a period of four years. These funds will allow researchers at Florida State University to expand Wetherby's FIRST WORDS Project which is currently in operation. This project is designed to identify children who have an autism spectrum disorder.

No one knows how many children have an autism spectrum disorder. According to the Autism and Development Disabilities Monitoring Network, the median age for diagnosis is four years old, and one in four children have an autism spectrum disorder.

The grant will allow researchers to help identify how many children under the age of four may suffer with an autistic spectrum disorder. They will screen over 16,000 children in North Florida for an autism spectrum disorder.

"There is not yet a biological marker for ASD, so the diagnosis of ASD is based on a set of behavioral features. Our efforts to screen a general population sample through the FIRST WORDS Project have provided the research to help us know the early signs. This new CDC study will provide more research to further refine those early signs," said Amy Wetherby, the L.L. Schendel Professor of Communication disorders at Florida State University.

Symptoms of autism spectrum disorders
Autism spectrum disorders can have many different symptoms. Infants and toddlers with autism typically miss many of the developmental milestones that their peers experience. They may not look at faces, communicate with gestures, play with objects, smiling and sharing emotion are just a few.