Announcement About Three New Trainee Projects

In 2003 the Autism Spectrum Disorders - Canadian-American Research Consortium (ASD-CARC) started a strategic training program (www.AutismTraining.ca) to provide an opportunity for students and professionals to develop their technical and research skills, improve their communication skills, and expand their knowledge about ASDs. The ASD-CARC Research Registry allows trainees in the program to bring their research projects to more families by announcing it to families who have joined our Research Registry. Last year a trainee in our program posted a questionnaire at our website hoping to recruit "some" families to complete her questionnaire. She was thrilled to have an overwhelming response, with twice as many families responding than she expected, making her study far more robust. To read about her findings, please click here

We are now announcing three new studies by trainees in our program. These are from trainees from Queen's University (Tess Clifford with Dr. Patricia Minnes in the Department of Psychology and Tiziana Bontempo with Dr. Rosemary Lysaght in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences) and York University (Carly McMorris with Dr. James Bebko in the Department of Psychology). Their studies range from looking at the complicated process of diagnosing an individual with ASD, to experiences in parent support groups, to sensory experiences and work place experiences for adults with ASD. We hope that you will read more about their studies (below) and consider participating and perhaps even passing this email along to others who might be interested.

Examining the Diagnostic History of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders
(Carly McMorris/James Bebko)
Families of children with a diagnosis of ASD often report frustration with the process of obtaining a diagnosis for their child. It often involves multiple visits to a variety of different professionals with various diagnoses being given, including ADHD, Conduct Disorder, as well as possible medications and changes to the diagnosis over time. This study is intended to document these complicated histories which can be frustrating to families. The primary goal of this study is to better understand families’ experiences, which may help to delineate appropriate diagnostic procedures for professionals.  Participation involves completion of an online questionnaire, which will take approximately 10-15 minutes. To learn more, or to participate, please click here.

Support Groups for Parents of Children with ASDs: Predictors of Involvement
(Tess Clifford/Patricia Minnes)
We want to learn about the experiences of parents of children with ASDs. We are especially interested in your experiences with parent support groups, and would like to learn how best to support all families of children with ASDs. In addition to feedback from you, if you are interested, you may be invited to participate in an online parent support group. There are 5 questionnaires that will take about 1 hour to complete; however, they can be completed at different times over a one month period. To learn more, or to participate, please click here.

Sensory Processing Patterns in Adults with ASDs
(Tiziana Bontempo/Rosemary Lysaght)
We are interested in exploring the role of different sensory processing patterns in adults with ASD. Phase 1 involves the completion of a questionnaire on the general sensory experiences of adults with ASDs.  One of the questions you will be asked is whether you participate in paid employment. Individuals who participate in paid employment may be invited to participate in Phase 2 of this study, which involves an interview to talk about your work. To learn more, or to participate, please click here.