Today the READi lab is saying a very bittersweet “Goodbye!” to Elyanah, who has been a vital member of our team for almost 3 years. She has been integral in coordinating the Screen-Refer-Treat study and mentoring undergraduate research assistants. We will miss her keen organizational skills and her passion for community-oriented advocacy tremendously. After being immersed in research related to early intervention, she is very excited to start working as a Family Resources Coordinator to assist families in accessing resources more directly. We cannot wait to hear about her new achievements, and we wish her all the best. Thank you for everything, Elyanah!

Traditional theater experiences can be difficult for individuals with autism spectrum disorder or other sensory and cognitive needs. A number of organizations in the Seattle area, including Village Theatre, the Paramount Theatre, Taproot Theatre, Seattle Symphony, and Seattle Children’s Theatre, have begun offering sensory-friendly performances to make theater more accessible. These performances alter the sound and lighting design and include warnings before any surprising or scary events so as not to overwhelm neurodiverse audiences. Additionally, some theaters offer social stories about attending a performance. The Universal Participation Initiative, one of the entities helping push for greater accessibility and offering training to arts organizations, hopes that progress on audience development can lead to long-term accessibility changes to theater settings. To read more about sensory-friendly shows in Seattle, click here.

Yesterday morning Catherine Dick presented the research project she completed through her participation in the UW LEND program (Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities). Her LEND project compared parent perceptions of the family-centeredness of their Primary Care Providers and Early Intervention providers.  This quarter Catherine will be finishing up her year as a LEND trainee, as well her third year in the Child Clinical Psychology Program. Time flies, doesn’t it?

“Nothing about us without us,” is the mission behind Associate Professor Hala Annabi’s “Autism @ Work Playbook,” a new resource created by the University of Washington Information School that guides workplaces in sustainable and well-supported practices for employing people with autism. This document provides a guide to help businesses and organizations develop enriching and meaningful employment opportunities for adults with autism. The playbook suggests that organizations stay connected to the autism community by learning about needs, resources, and preferences, while avoiding making assumptions about individuals’ skills or interests. To learn more about the playbook and Dr. Annabi’s research project, Autism Ready Workplace: Creating and Sustaining Autism Hiring Initiatives, click here!

Yesterday Lizzy Karp rocked her Dissertation Defense! She will graduate from the UW Psychology program in June, and will soon be a bona fide PhD! Way to go, Lizzy!

If so, you may be eligible for a research study conducted by Drs. Stone and Sommerville. The study is examining how infants with an older sibling with ASD understand social interactions and other people’s emotions. This project will be ending on May 31, so this is our home stretch of data collection! Participation involves coming to UW, where your infant will watch videos while we measure eye movements, heart rate, and skin responses, and completing several questionnaires about your infant and yourself. This is a great opportunity to contribute to autism research! If you are interested, please email eccl@uw.edu or call 206-221-2240.

Earlier this month, 5 members of the READi Lab team traveled to Montreal, Canada to present posters and talks at the annual meeting of the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR). Our presentations described our research activities and findings on a range of topics, including:

• Perspectives from EI providers about discussing ASD concerns with families
• Use of the online M-CHAT-R/F screening tool by primary care providers across WA State
• Perceptions of family-centered care among parents who have concerns about ASD for their toddler
• Use of Reciprocal Imitation Training by Part C Early Intervention providers across the state
• Improving parent-provider communication and shared decision-making for the early detection of ASD
• A new tool for measuring DSM-5 symptom expression in toddlers (collaboration with U Conn)
• The effect of ImPACT intervention on expressive communication in infant siblings of children with ASD (collaboration with Vanderbilt)

Despite being busy, our lab members still found time to enjoy the local food (like poutine and bagels!) and to view some of the sights in this beautiful city!

The Woodland Park Zoo, in an effort to accommodate children and teens with autism, has worked to create less stimulating opportunities and resources for families wanting to visit. They have developed a “sensory map,” which points out the quieter areas of the park, as well as a “sensory garden,” which has interactive activities designed to provide soothing stimulation. To read more about these inclusive opportunities, click here!

For the second year in a row, the READi Lab was excited to attend Centralia College’s Family Fun Fest last Friday! Family Fun Fest is an annual event in Lewis County, one of the counties participating in our SRT study, where kids can play while parents learn about local resources in the area. Representing the lab were John and Elyanah, who tabled alongside other autism-focused organizations and shared information about ongoing research and resources for parents. Our various crafts (including a make-your-own Julia puppet station) was a big hit with the kids, as you can see! Thank you once again to the Lewis County Autism Coalition and The Link for inviting us!

Today the READi Lab bids a very bitter-sweet farewell to Hailee Hannah as she embarks on a new journey. Hailee will be pursuing her MA in Applied Child and Adolescent Psychology here at UW starting this June! During her time in the READi Lab, she worked with caregivers and EI providers on the Screen-Refer-Treat Study and performed behavioral assessments for the ImPACT and Pathways Studies. Although we will miss her keen intellect and her passion for working with children, we are very excited for her next steps and wish her all the best.

Max Park, a 15-year-old with autism, has an exceptional talent for solving Rubik’s Cubes—so much so that he has competed in national and world competitions, and now holds multiple world records for his incredible speed. Max began “cubing” at a very young age as a therapeutic way to help him socialize with other kids and develop his fine motor skills. Early on, Max’s parents noticed that as he began competing, Max’s communication skills grew, as the shared interest helped Max feel comfortable initiating social interactions. Little did his parents know how exceptionally talented he would become as a speed cuber. Max’s plans to continue competing with the motto, ‘don’t think, just solve.’ Way to go, Max! To read more about his story in Guinness World Records, click here here!

If so, the King County Interagency Coordinating Council (KCICC) is seeking your input! They are looking for parents and caregivers whose children have participated in early intervention within the last 5 years to join their new Family Involvement Committee. The mission of KCICC is to assure the delivery of coordinated, comprehensive, family centered, culturally relevant, community-based services for all children from birth to 3 years with special needs and their families. The Family Involvement Committee will provide an opportunity for families to meet each other and connect with community resources and service providers, and help inform the King County Birth to Three Services system. There will also be opportunities to attend leadership trainings. Participation involves five in-person meetings, for which stipends, interpreters, and childcare are available. If you are interested, please complete the survey here:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/K8WQM6D no later than April 30, 2019.

…by announcing the introduction of Julia’s family for the first time in Muppet form! Julia’s parents, big brother, and dog Rose appear in new digital videos celebrating the importance of families. They’ve also released new resources focused on bullying, which disproportionately affects children with autism. All of these resources are available on sesamestreet.org/autism in both English and Spanish. There’s also an all-new episode with Julia airing Monday April 8^th on HBO and PBS Kids!

On Wednesday, April 24 at 11:00amPST, Open Doors for Multicultural Families is hosting a FREE webinar designed for professionals who seek resources in different languages to work with linguistically diverse parents of youth with developmental and intellectual disabilities. In this webinar, participants will increase knowledge and understanding of transition-related resources in 9 languages. They will also learn how to share these resources with linguistically- and culturally-diverse youth and their families. Due to limited space, registration is required! To register, click here.  For more information, here is the full flyer:

The latest newsletter from the UW Center on Human Development and Disability featured our very own Dr. Wendy Stone! The article spotlights the work that Dr. Stone has done to help understand barriers to getting an autism diagnosis early, as well as to improve accessibility to services. Dr. Stone’s research focuses on many dimensions related to service access, such as serving underserved communities, using evidence-based tools for screening and intervention, and evaluating how intervention affects family-provider relationships. In this article, she discusses these topics within the context of the research we do at the READi Lab—specifically the Pathways Study. To read the full article, click here.

If so, you may be eligible for a research study conducted by Drs. Stone and Sommerville. The study is examining how infants with an older sibling with ASD understand social interactions and other people’s emotions. This project will be ending on May 31, so this is our home stretch of data collection! Participation involves coming to UW, where your infant will watch videos while we measure eye movements, heart rate, and skin responses, and completing several questionnaires about your infant and yourself. This is a great opportunity to contribute to autism research! If you are interested, please email eccl@uw.edu or call 206-221-2240.

Previous studies have suggested that infant siblings of children with ASD have early delays in motor development. The Baby Siblings Research Consortium (BSRC) designed a project, led by Dr. Jana Iverson, to examine whether any specific type of motor delay might be an early marker for ASD. The BSRC database, which contains longitudinal data from 6 months of age to 3 years for infants with and without an older sibling with ASD, was used to identify 625 children from 8 research sites who had the relevant assessments. Fine and gross motor skills on the Mullen Scales of Early Learning were examined at 6 months to determine whether they predicted ASD symptom severity at 36 months. Results revealed that fine motor skills overall were lower in the infant siblings of children with ASD than the comparison group, and were associated with later ASD diagnosis, but no specific motor signs predicted an ASD diagnosis.  Fun fact: Wendy is a member of the BSRC and is a co-author on this paper.

To read more, click here.

“What happens when people who have trouble fitting into a traditional workplace get one designed just for them?” This question is posed in an online New York Times article about two companies that are designed to accommodate individuals with ASD: Auticon and MindSpark.  At these companies, individuals with ASD “define the predominant culture,” rather trying to fit into a norm that is challenging for them to navigate. To read more about these businesses, their goals, and their employees, click here!

This week our lab welcomed Erica Caesar, our Program Officer for the Pathways grant! Erica met with project staff, toured our space, viewed assessment videos, and discussed our progress.  It was wonderful to meet her, and we appreciate the time she spent with us!