According to a report by the United Health Foundation released in early October, suicides among adolescents ages 15 to 19 jumped 29% over the previous decade, from 8.4 per 100,000 to 10.8 per 100,000. In March, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued new recommendations that call for pediatric health providers to screen all young people…
It is expected that the number of autistic youths transitioning from school-based services will increase by 123% in this decade. Current estimates indicate that about half of adults who receive services through developmental disability agencies spend their days in adult day programs, so it is important that those programs lead to positive outcomes for the…
Many autistic people like keeping up with the latest research in the field. Whether you want to self-advocate or gather information for a loved one, you will likely encounter autism research studies as you engage with the autism community. But, the large number of studies published each year can make this space hard to navigate.…
In November 2020, OAR’s board of directors authorized funding for a one-year study of a telehealth parent training program that parents could access at home, Feasibility of Parent Training via Telepractice for Rural Families of Children with Autism. As the research proposal noted, between 50% and 70% of autistic children engage in problematic behavior with…
In 2021, Vanessa Bal, Ph.D., an associate professor and the Karmazin & Lillard Chair in Adult Autism at Rutgers, and Evan Kleiman, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the psychology department, led a one-year OAR-funded study, Developing Supports to Address Mental Health Needs of Autistic Students in Postsecondary Education, that examined an intervention to help autistic…
In November, OAR’s Board of Directors authorized funding for five applied autism research studies in 2022. These new grants, totaling $196,272, bring OAR’s total research funding to more than $4.4 million since 2002. This article is the last of five previews to be featured in The OARacle this year. Almost all (93.7% according to one study) autistic…
One of the most significant characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a “delay in, or total lack of, the development of spoken language.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that approximately 40% of autistic children are non-speaking and do not develop sufficient natural speech or writing to meet their daily communication…
A new study finds that global prevalence of autism has risen to 100 in 10,000 (or 1 in 100), up from 62 in 10,000 a decade ago. The study, “Global prevalence of autism: A systematic review update,” was published in Autism Research at the beginning of March. The researchers reviewed studies of the prevalence of…
In April, OAR teamed up with several researchers to deliver a spring webinar series on community-based participatory research (CBPR). The series featured researchers who conducted studies related to participatory research with autistic adults, healthy relationships on the autism spectrum, and suicide prevention. In highlighting their work, they provided effective strategies for fellow researchers on how…
Since as many as 21% of school-age children in the United States speak a language other than English at home, it is likely that percentage includes a number of autistic children. It has long been assumed that exposing autistic children to two or more languages can exacerbate social communication challenges they may have. As a…
