Federal Grant Award Summary

The University of South Carolina received a $216,612 Project Grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173), awarded on March 6, 2026, with a completion date of February 28, 2031. The project investigates vocal development and social communication outcomes in children with an older sibling diagnosed with autism, a population at elevated risk for social communication impairments. The research delivers three primary products: (1) characterization of early vocal feature trajectories (including volubility and canonical proportion) in at-risk infants from 12 to 36 months of age compared to control populations; (2) analysis of associations between vocal feature development and preschool-age outcomes at 36 months, when autism diagnostic stability is optimal; and (3) validation of brief language sample assessments as clinically meaningful tools for identifying social communication impairments.

The project addresses a critical gap in developmental communication research by examining how early vocal features evolve during the second and third years of life—a period of rapid language expansion for which limited longitudinal data exist. By establishing relationships between early vocal characteristics and later developmental outcomes in this high-risk population, the research aims to optimize assessment measures for clinical translation and early intervention implementation, ultimately improving long-term social, cognitive, and interpersonal development outcomes in children with familial autism risk.