Autism is a complex, neurodevelopmental disability that affects many U.S. children and requires access to services and interventions to allow autistic children to thrive. Latinx, Black, and American Indian or Alaska Native families with autistic children face unique challenges related to disparities in access to services. Those disparities, along with lack of health care access and poor clinical encounters, often…
Community-based interventions are limited for autistic adults. Could community programs fill some of the gap? Programs that foster self-expression, confidence, and leadership offer promising opportunities to help neurodivergent adults to develop skills they need to achieve their goals. In their 2022 OAR-funded study, Amplifying Autistic Voices: Investigating the Impact of a Community-Based Public Speaking Program, researchers…
Substance use disorder is a widespread problem that affects one in 10 Americans, including autistic adults. While there is evidence-based programming for adults who engage in unhealthy substance use, those programs are not designed for autistic people. In their 2023 OAR-funded study, ADAPT: Development of a Substance Use Disorder Prevention Class for Autistic Adults, Laura…
Problem behavior, such as self-injury, aggression, and disruptive behavior, which many autistic children demonstrate, can strain family relationships and result in challenges at school and other places. If not addressed, it can lower quality of life, limit the autistic child’s access to education and community activities and raise parental stress. In a two-year OAR-funded study,…
Sleep difficulties are highly prevalent in autistic youth, often contributing to negative child and family outcomes. Behavioral sleep interventions have been shown to reduce those difficulties, yet few studies have examined how they would work for autistic youth. In 2024, co-investigators Cameron Neece, Ph.D., and Tori Van Dyk, Ph.D., conducted a two-year, OAR-funded study to…
Suicide is a leading cause of early death for autistic individuals. Researchers do not know whether an autistic adult is more likely to consider suicide than a non-autistic adult or if suicidal thoughts and behaviors are connected to a person’s social activity. Autistic adults seeking help for mental health problems, including suicidal thoughts, report feeling…
Research has shown that autistic adults have poorer quality-of-life outcomes than their neurotypical peers, including lower employment rates and educational achievements. A key way to improve outcomes for this growing population is to implement research-informed transition planning, which addresses core impairments in skills needed for autonomous and independent living, including self-knowledge, self-determination, and self-regulation. In…
In 2022, OAR awarded a graduate research grant to Faith Frost, who was pursuing her doctoral degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders at James Madison University. Her study, “Interpretation of Indirect Requests by Autistic Adults,” examined how autistic adults determine whether a statement could or should be interpreted as an indirect request, depending on context.…
Behavioral intervention for autistic children focuses on building many skills in a short amount of time through individualized programming. That goal requires effective and efficient teaching strategies, such as prompting, which promotes the acquisition and independence of skills. However, not all prompts are effective for all learners. In her OAR-funded 2021 study, “Stimulus Prompts in…
As the number of autistic students attending college has increased, more colleges have created programs to support them. However, mental health support is often not included as a component of those programs. This is a critical lack since autistic adults face more anxiety than their non-autistic peers. A 2020 study found that 20% of autistic…
