Current Projects
Autism Center of Excellence
One major focus of our research activity is our participation in the UCSD Autism Center of Excellence (ACE) Project, which is one of six research programs funded by several agencies of the National Institutes of Health. The ACE project is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary effort to understand the biology of autistic spectrum disorders, to identify the earliest biological features, and to study the relationship between the genetic and neurobiology of autism and treatment effects. The UCSD Autism Intervention Research Program acts as the treatment core of the larger ACE project by providing intensive and individualized behavioral treatment of participants between the ages of 12 and 36 months and training for their families. One primary goal of this research is to determine the neurobiological correlates to treatment outcome. Children's response to treatment (i.e. their rate of progress) will be correlated with neurological information gathered by other researchers associated with this project. This information will allow us to identify features of the brain that are related to a good versus lesser outcome. In the future these findings may influence treatment by promoting brain development in the direction of the brain pattern of children who show the best outcomes. Please go to the Autism Center of Excellence website for more information.
Enrollment for this study is open.
Please contact Becky Gutierrez (beckyg@ucsd.edu) for more information.
Translating Pivotal Response Training into Classroom Environments
As rates of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) increase there is growing strain on public schools to provide high quality, specialized programming. Implementing such high quality, evidence-based programs with students with ASD poses a difficult problem for schools because outcome data often come from highly controlled research studies. Very little research to date has examined the effectiveness of any evidence-based ASD-specific techniques in the context of school systems. The purpose of this project is to translate an evidence-based intervention into classroom settings. The intervention, Pivotal Response Training (PRT), has been shown to be efficacious for improving communication, play and social interaction in children with ASD. Although PRT is widely used in schools, it was developed for use in one-on-one settings and effectiveness has not been tested in the classroom. In collaboration with public school special education teachers, PRT will be modified for use in the classroom, and effectiveness will be examined.
Enrollment of teachers for this study will begin in early 2010.
Please contact Aubyn Stahmer (astahmer@casrc.org) for more information.
Evaluating Social Communicative Behaviors across Treatment Settings for Children with Autism
Parents of children who are at-risk or newly diagnosed with ASD are faced with making difficult decisions about what type of treatment program is best for their child. To make this choice, parents must decipher the subtle differences between intervention options. In order to examine some differences between treatment programs, this study is looking for differences in social communicative behaviors for children in an in-home based treatment program versus an inclusive preschool based treatment program. Children from both types of treatment will be assessed on a variety of semi-structured play-based assessments when they enter their chosen treatment program, and again after six months. The changes in social-communicative behaviors will be examined over time for each child, as well as between groups, for any possible overall differences. The information gathered from this study will help practitioners identify areas of strength and weakness for each of these types of programs and be able to help parents decide which type of intervention program is best suited for their child.
Participation is open for families enrolled at Alexa's Playful Learning Academy for Young Children or in the Autism Center of Excellence Project.
Please contact Liz Worcester (eworcest@ucsd.edu) for more information.
Research on Infant/Toddler Mental Health: Building a Community Partnership
Childhood behavioral, emotional, and communicative challenges represent a significant public health challenge. This project seeks to develop a consortium of community providers, families of children presenting with disorders of relating and communicating, funding agencies and researchers to identify an evidence-based intervention to meet the growing needs of these infants and toddlers and their families. The project uses a collaborative approach involving community stakeholders and researchers and an empirically validated framework to measure the collaborative process. Identifying and testing a specific model for use in a large community will simultaneously advance the science in early intervention/prevention and serve a critical need identified by community providers, funding agencies and families.
Participation in the program development process is currently open.
Please contact Aubyn Stahmer (astahmer@casrc.org) for more information.
PHILLY AIMS: Philadelphia Autism Instructional Methods Study
This project capitalizes on the implementation of STAR (Strategies for Teaching Based on Autism Research) in the School District of Philadelphia. The primary aims are to examine the procedures necessary for implementation of evidence-based practices in public school systems, and secondarily, to examine the effects of STAR versus the comparison condition on academic progress and impairments associated with ASD. We will assess changes, over the course of an academic year, in: 1. School readiness, with a focus on pre-academic skills; 2. Communication, including use of expressive and receptive language; 3. Socialization and social skills; and 4. Adaptive and challenging behaviors. The secondary aims are to examine the potentially moderating role between STAR and these outcomes of: 1. Children's symptoms and chronological and developmental age at baseline; 2. Teacher effects, specifically fidelity of program implementation and training and experience; 3. Other interventions received prior to and concurrent with the study period; and 4. Family characteristics. The Philadelphia School District began to use STAR for half of the approximately 330 children in 42 kindergarten- through-2nd grade autism support classrooms starting in September 2008. The other half of teachers will receive training beginning September 2009. Findings from the proposed study would provide timely and critical evidence regarding the implementation and effectiveness of one promising practice, with direct relevance to translation of findings into practice and policy.
Enrollment for this study is open (but takes place in the Philadelphia School District only).
Please contact Aubyn Stahmer (astahmer@casrc.org) for more information.
Current Diagnostic Practices for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Diagnosing an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is often complicated, as practitioners must evaluate all available information to decide where a child falls on the autism spectrum. This research project was developed to learn more about current diagnostic practices utilized by community practitioners who conduct diagnostic evaluations for children being evaluated for ASD. Community practitioners who participate in this study receive training and ongoing supervision on the use of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). The ADOS is a semi-structured, standardized assessment designed to assist practitioners in evaluating individuals for ASD. This study seeks to aid researchers in understanding more about the practices conducted in the community with regard to diagnosis and assessment of children with ASD. Results from this study may also benefit children in that valuable feedback from community practitioners can be used to develop innovative approaches for implementing standardized diagnostic and assessment methods in community settings.
Enrollment for this study is open.
Please contact Sarah Dufek (sdufek@ucsd.edu) for more information.
Developing a Clinician-Friendly Assessment Tool for a Naturalistic Behavior Intervention
This research project was developed to evaluate a Predictive Profile assessment developed for Pivotal Response Training (PRT) that may be utilized by community practitioners who work primarily with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). PRT is a naturalistic, play-based, child-directed behavioral therapy that improves language, play, and social skills in many children with ASD. The Predictive PRT Profile is based on six child behaviors found to be relevant to treatment response to PRT. The Predictive PRT Profile assessment may assist practitioners to predict which children may respond best to PRT. Community practitioners who participate in this study are trained to implement the Predictive PRT Profile assessment and are providing valuable feedback on the implementation of the assessment. The data collected will be used to help further develop the assessment and train other community practitioners to implement it.
Enrollment for this study is open.
Please contact Sarah Dufek (sdufek@ucsd.edu) for more information.
Interstate Variation in Healthcare Utilization Among Children with ASD
This is a large national study that will comprehensively identify the impact of state level autism-related policies on the publicly funded healthcare utilization of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The three primary aims of the study are to 1) conduct an intensive examination of state policies and practices that may affect Medicaid-reimbursed healthcare delivery to children with ASD; 2) provide accurate national and state-level estimates of publicly-funded healthcare utilization among children with ASD; and 3) examine the relative contribution of demographic, clinical and system-of-care characteristics on the types, intensity and patterns of related service use. These findings will provide critical information to states as they develop appropriate standards of care and related policies for the growing number of children diagnosed with ASD, and will potentially lead to policy models that improve care. This study will set the stage for future studies in which service utilization data from other systems and primary data about families' experiences and outcomes are linked to data on healthcare. The study also will provide a baseline against which to measure the effects of future system-level interventions. Finally, the results will provide evidence for a conceptual framework for understanding how states address the needs of children with chronic disabilities in which the best course of treatment and expected outcomes are uncertain.
Please contact Aubyn Stahmer (astahmer@casrc.org) for more information.
Integrating Structured and Naturalistic Treatment Strategies for Children with Autism
It is not well understood how Discrete Trial Training and Pivotal Response Training may be differentially effective at targeting different skill areas. It may be that naturalistic and structured teaching procedures accomplish different goals and are mutually beneficial. No studies have suggested empirically-tested methods of integrating structured and naturalistic approaches into comprehensive treatment programs. Instead, studies have compared these teaching procedures in one specific domain area without data to suggest how empirical findings transfer to other learning domains or to diverse individualized child needs. The overall goal of this research is to identify methods of tailoring comprehensive treatment programs to the individual needs of different children with autism.
Participation is open for families enrolled in the Autism Center of Excellence Project.
Please contact Allison Cunningham (abcunnin@ucsd.edu) for more information.
Randomized Controlled Comparison of Pivotal Response Training and the Picture Exchange Communication System for Nonverbal Children with Autism
There is very little known about methods of designing interventions for very young nonverbal children. The purpose of the proposed research project is to systematically compare two widely used types of intervention programs. In one condition, randomly assigned children will be provided with an intervention using a well-documented manualized intervention focused on verbal expressive communication only (Pivotal Response Training, PRT). In the other condition, randomly assigned children will receive an intervention for the same social communication functions using a well-documented manualized augmentative system of intervention (The Picture Exchange Communication System, PECS). Children in the two conditions will be compared for development of verbal and nonverbal communication, changes in disruptive behavior, changes in symptoms of autism, and general adaptive behavior gains. In addition, parent satisfaction and stress measures will be gathered in order to assess the effects of each intervention on family functioning. This study is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.
Enrollment for this study is closed.
Please contact Becky Gutierrez (beckyg@ucsd.edu) for more information..
