MIDB’s Dr. Meghan Swanson Awarded Major Grant to Advance Autism Research

Up to one-third of autistic children are nonspeaking or use little spoken language. Yet, these young people are routinely left out of foundational research. As a result, scientists know the least about how language develops in this population, making it more difficult to provide families with the right support at the right stage of a child’s development.

To bridge this gap, Meghan Swanson, PhD, has been awarded a groundbreaking $34.7M grant to fund Project MAPLE, or Mapping Autism with Precision in Language and Expression. This ambitious longitudinal study will use advanced brain imaging to map communication patterns in children with autism. By identifying the patterns that underlie each child’s unique communication strengths and challenges, Project MAPLE aims to predict when and how language skills will emerge—building a brand-new roadmap for how language develops.

Ultimately, this research will help doctors and therapists customize care according to a child’s distinct trajectory, giving families access to more effective support at the moments it can make the greatest impact. Once recruitment begins, families will participate in the study primarily at the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain (MIDB).

Dr. Swanson, director of training and education at (MIDB) and an associate professor in the University of Minnesota Medical School’s Department of Pediatrics, received the grant from Aligning Research to Impact Autism (ARIA), an initiative dedicated to accelerating scientific discovery and creating more therapeutic opportunities for people with profound autism and people on the spectrum who seek additional support. The study will be done in partnership with Kristina Johnson, PhD, assistant professor in the College of Engineering and the Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University.

"This study combines brain imaging with expert development testing and real-world communication tracking at home," says Dr. Swanson. "Our goal is to understand how communication develops across different ages and language profiles. This will help us build new tools to measure progress in future clinical trials and everyday care."

Unlike traditional academic settings, MIDB combines state-of-the-art research spaces, a thoughtfully designed brain imaging suite and a renowned autism clinic all under one roof. This unique environment allows Dr. Swanson's team to collaborate across disciplines in real time and directly help local families.

“When MIDB was envisioned, we were not interested in incremental science,” says Damien Fair, PhD, PA-C, co-director of MIDB. “We wanted to take on the challenges other institutions couldn't, the ones that only get solved when fields that rarely collaborate are encouraged to work together. Autistic children who are nonspeaking or use minimal spoken language have been overlooked for too long, and closing that gap takes exactly this kind of cross-disciplinary effort. Project MAPLE is that vision realized. It brings together the expertise needed to fundamentally change how we understand and support these children.”

For community partners and providers, Project MAPLE will turn fast-moving science into practical, real-world tools.

"This work will grow the evidence base needed to provide practitioners with tools and programs to better serve nonspeaking children and their families," says Amy Esler, PhD, a licensed psychologist at MIDB and professor in the Department of Pediatrics.

Crucially, the team is also changing how research itself is done. "We are creating new ways to make brain scans and testing comfortable and welcoming for nonspeaking children," Dr. Esler adds. "We want to show researchers everywhere how to design studies that include everyone."

Project MAPLE is designed to look past traditional labels and focus entirely on the needs of children who have been left out of the conversation for too long. By centering the research on nonspeaking children, Dr. Swanson and her partners are building a more inclusive future—one where every child’s unique potential can be understood, valued and supported.

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This article originally appeared on the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain website.