Our overarching goal is to detect autism spectrum disorder (ASD) earlier and establish effective interventions that can be implemented in infancy. We will extend our CIHR-supported research to address three main objectives:1) To map developmental pathways to ASD during infancy, hypothesizing that impaired social-communication in ASD results from earlier deficits in attention control and related emotion dysregulation.2) To refine and test our evidence-based toddler treatment model with an adjunct that targets impaired early attention control.3) To better understand parents’ perspectives on communication of early concerns and engagement in early intervention.Utilizing an integrated knowledge translation (iKT) approach, we will work with our partners to ensure that our research is responsive to stakeholder needs and perspectives and that our findings change clinical practice.We believe our research will have at least 4 major impacts that will improve outcomes for children with ASD and their families.1) Earlier diagnosis and treatment could follow from identifying behavioural markers of ASD in the first year that can be detected clinically, at a point in development most likely to have the greatest impact.2) Enhancing our infant/toddler treatment model has the potential to reduce or even prevent expression of ASD-related impairments.3) Partnering with community service providers will allow us to translate our novel treatment strategies to communities and thereby broaden the reach, impact and affordability of early intervention of ASD.4) Our work with families to understand their perspectives on early assessment and treatment will inform service delivery for optimal experience, engagement and outcomes for children and their families.Core Expertise. For the past 15 years, we have co-led an innovative clinical research program to improve early diagnosis and treatment of ASD to optimize functioning of children with ASD, and reduce the burden of suffering associated with this disorder.We are among the top scientists in this field internationally, serving in leadership roles in several international collaborations. Dr. Zwaigenbaum is adevelopmental pediatrician with graduate training in epidemiology who holds national leadership roles inASD surveillance and practice guidelines. Dr. Bryson is a clinical-developmentalpsychologist who has conducted groundbreaking research on attention in ASD and developedNova Scotia’s innovative early intervention program for ASD. Our program experts provide outstanding methodological and conceptual expertise (e.g., neuroscience, engineering) in support of leading-edge technology to test our new hypotheses and to achieve our goal of improved care for children with ASD.Training and mentoring. We will foster interdisciplinary educational and mentorship opportunities for our research trainees, modeled on the CIHR-supported national training program in ASD directed by Dr. Zwaigenbaum. This will include cross-lab mentoring by program experts with expertise complementary to that of trainees’ supervisors and trainee-led public forums mentored by our iKT program experts. In partnership with the Public Health Agency of Canada, we will train health professionals to improve clinical skills in early detection and diagnosis of ASD. We also will partner with early childhood educator training programs and provincial early intervention services to train front-line service providers on our novel treatment model.
Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC)
Autism Research Database (AFD)
