Contact SPARK Team

Our team is happy to answer any questions you have about SPARK. We are also available to help families enroll in-person at the Texas Children's Hospital Autism Center in Houston, Texas. 

The SPARK team at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital is dedicated to making sure that families are supported through their SPARK participation. Below you will find information about common issues families may experience. Please contact our team if these apply to you or if you have any additional questions (FAQs).

• Technical issues completing online registration 

• Never receiving a saliva for kit for one or more family members participating in SPARK (ex: invited parent, other siblings, etc.)

• Lost/damaged saliva kits, difficulty collecting saliva samples, or questions about returning kits

• Major family event that may alter participation (ex: new ASD diagnosis for a sibling)

• Any other questions you may have, we’re here for you!

You can also check your progress by logging into your SPARK dashboard and reviewing your task list for new items. Visit the DISCOVER Section of the SPARK website to view community webinars, articles, and other information about autism!

We are more likely to discover information about an individual’s autism with the participation of both their biological parents. Having DNA from the biological family members also increases the quality of genetic analyses that we are able to perform. 

If you have already invited a biological parent(s) to participate, please pay close attention to the following information:

— An invitation email should have already been sent to them with your family’s personalized registration link.

— The invitation to another biological parent is NOT a registration. Each invited adult must provide their own consent and shipping address through the online forms (10 minutes). We CANNOT ship their saliva kit until they have completed these steps. (Note: Final gift cards are issued once all invited family members return their kits! Review gift card eligibility)

— To view, re-send, or edit invitations, log-in to your SPARK dashboard.

You can edit your invitations by logging into your SPARK Dashboard.