MIND Institute gets $15 million to study Autism

A researcher at the UC Davis MIND Institute has received a $15.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to test the effect of intensive intervention on toddlers with autism.

Sally Rogers, a leading researcher on autism treatment, will use play- and relationship-based approaches to see if intervention earlier than 24 months of age is effective in reducing -- or circumventing altogether -- the language and social problems associated with the serious developmental disorder.

She will be joined in the five-year study by researchers at the University of Washington and University of Michigan.

Researchers will also attempt to identify the behavioral factors that help predict whether or not a child will respond well to treatment.

"There is very little published about the effectiveness of any intervention model for children in treatment earlier than two," Rogers said in a press statement.