ASD

Challenge Many autistic children experience high levels of emotional and behavioural challenges that are often long-lasting and stressful. Parents and caregivers play a powerful role in supporting their kids’ emotional wellbeing. Research has shown that certain factors (such as caregiver mental health, social connections, and access to services) can influence autistic children’s wellbeing in [...]

Challenge Family caregivers of people with neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDDs) often experience stress and mental health difficulties (e.g., anxiety, depression). However, there are few services to support their wellbeing. Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) helps people to cope by increasing acceptance and mindfulness skills, which may help these caregivers. Commitment Training (ACT) Project Summary The [...]

Challenge There are few interventions targeted at children three years of age and under who have early signs of autism or a confirmed diagnosis, despite evidence that early intervention is important. Project Summary Social ABC’s is an intervention co-developed by Dr. Jessica Brian (Holland Bloorview, Toronto), together with Dr. Susan Bryson from Halifax. The intervention [...]

Challenge Many children living with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are hypersensitive to certain sounds. When exposed to these sounds, they may feel very distressed, which can cause them to react with behaviours such as covering their ears, yelling, screaming or running out of the room to avoid the sound. Schools’ approaches for accommodating sound [...]

Challenge Kids with autism commonly struggle to regulate their emotions and handle the day-to-day stressors in their lives. As a result, they run a higher risk of mental-health challenges such as depression, anxiety disorders and behavioural challenges. Despite this reality, most community-based services have limited mental health supports for autistic children. Project Summary [...]

Challenge Children with neurodevelopmental disabilities often struggle because of deficits in attention and executive functions/EF (e.g., inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility). These deficits contribute to severe long-term impairments at school and in life. Project Summary Dino Island is a tablet-based game-like intervention designed to improve attention, short-term memory, and self-regulation (EF). It is specifically designed [...]

Challenge Kids with autism commonly struggle to regulate their emotions and handle the day-to-day stressors in their lives. As a result, they are at increased risk of depression, anxiety disorders and anger issues. Project Summary Secret Agent Society is a cognitive behavioural intervention designed to help school-aged children with autism “crack the code” of emotions [...]

Challenge Many children living with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are hypersensitive to certain sounds. When children are exposed to these sounds, they may be very distressed. This distress causes them to react with behaviours such as covering their ears, yelling or screaming or running out of the room to avoid the sound. Schools’ approaches for [...]

Challenge Children on the autism spectrum commonly face learning and attention challenges, but the relationships between these deficits and ASD’s core impairments are poorly understood. If we knew more about the predictors of learning and attention disorders in people with ASD, we would gain a better idea of why they arise and how to help [...]

Challenge Parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have long noticed that ASD aggregates within families, but may manifest differently amongst siblings. Researchers wondered how and why this occurred. Project Summary The team set out to examine gene-behaviour relationships of newly diagnosed children with ASD. The team hypothesized that multifactorial causes of ASD are [...]