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DISCOVERY

Helping All Children Thrive

DISCOVERY

Helping All Children Thrive

DISCOVERY

Helping All Children Thrive

Despite its rising profile, there are still a lot of unknowns when it comes to autism. SFU’s Autism and Developmental Disorders Lab strives to fill these knowledge gaps.

Most individuals with developmental disabilities face significant challenges to social inclusion, not only because of the unique challenges they have to bear but also because of common misconceptions, such as that everyone with autism is asocial. The mission of SFU’s Autism and Developmental Disorders Lab (ADDL) is to produce research that informs interventions to help these individuals achieve social competency and to inform the public at large about autism.

Since 2000, the lab has been adding to our understanding of Down Syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and other developmental disabilities, particularly Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Grace Iarocci is ADDL’s director as well as an SFU psychology professor and a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR) Scholar. The lab’s work is funded by the Canadian Tri-Councils (SSHRC, CIHR, & NSERC), the MSFHR, the Human Early Partnership, and the Laurel Foundation.

“I’ve always been curious about how children develop and about how resilient they are  in the face of significant life adversity,” says Iarocci. Her research approach is founded on the idea that atypical and typical development can be better understood when studied together, and most of her studies use participants with and without ASD. “There are more commonalities than differences and the differences can help us understand not only how ASD uniquely affects development, but also the limits and potential variations on typical development.”

In 2013, Iarocci's team developed the Multidimensional Social Competence Scale (MSCS), a clinical measurement tool to aid study of social competence that is used by clinicians and researchers in Canada, the US, Australia, the UK and China. It enables caregivers and researchers to identify subgroups within the autism spectrum to create tailored interventions based on a child’s level of social competence along seven distinct domains, from social motivation to emotion regulation. “The MSCS is the only standardized scale that can provide a multidimensional profile of strengths and challenges in social competence for children, adults with ASD, and for the typical population,” she says. 

For the past five summers, the ADDL has run a free day camp for children 7 to 12 years of age, both with and without ASD. The children engage in fun crafts and interactive game activities and also have the option of participating in research studies that involve playing computer games, word games, and puzzles.

“A dad from Kamloops approached the ADDL to initiate a parent networking group during the camp one year, and the following year ADDL expanded the camp to include a space for parents to network and participate in workshops and discussion groups co-led by parents and invited speakers,” says Iarocci.

Because the impacts of ASD persist past childhood, the lab has started to investigate and devise interventions for issues faced by adolescents and adults with ASD. For instance, SFU’s Centre for Students with Disabilities launched a mentorship initiative last year to assist affected students who were making the high school-to-university leap. The idea was a team effort between the Centre, Iarocci and Elina Birmingham, director of the Social Attention Research Group at SFU. Peer mentors receive formal training and on-going supervision from faculty to provide companionship and coaching for their mentees.  The program has been off to a great start with positive feedback from the mentees.

While students, staff and volunteers with ASD are currently part of the ADDL team, Iarocci wants to get more of them involved in the research and initiatives that relate to them. Says Iarocci, “I believe this is not only an important step toward the empowerment and social inclusion of people with disabilities, but also a necessity for the evolution of the scientific effort.”

References

Dr. Grace Iarocci is director of the Autism and Developmental Disorders Lab and a faculty mentor of the Autism Research Training Program (ART) at SFU. Funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), the ART program is designed to recruit and train outstanding autism researchers from disciplines such as psychology, genetics, imaging, epidemiology, and neurology. Iarocci works closely with government and community agencies in B.C. to disseminate research information and influence policy on ASD and other developmental disabilities. Her research interests include developmental psychopathology; the development of attention and perception in individuals with pervasive developmental disorders, intellectual disability, risk and protective factors in the development of Aboriginal children.  

Q & A with Grace Iarocci

If you could sum up the value of university research in one word, what would it be?  

Research is innovation, changing the way we think and act so we move ever so slightly forward toward improving the human condition. I believe if we improve the human condition there are no limits to what we can accomplish.

How important is collaboration in advancing research?  

Complex conditions such as ASD require expertise from a variety of disciplines. My light-bulb moments happen during discourse with students, colleagues and the public–not in quiet contemplation.

SFU bills itself as “Canada’s most engaged research university.”  How does your own work exemplify this spirit of engagement?  

We regularly work with community and government agencies to build capacity for research in B.C. and to inform policy decisions that matter to people’s day-to-day lives. Our research in the lab is only one part of our commitment to improve the lives of children. We know that the social inclusion of individuals with disabilities  requires commitments and concerted efforts from researchers, families, communities and society.

What do you see as the most noteworthy emerging trend that will shape the direction of university research over the next 50 years?

How we specifically and effectively target research collaborations to find new ways to address population health issues. We are becoming more concerned with the quick and effective dissemination of interventions that have already shown promise in the lab. The more pertinent questions will be how do those techniques fare when delivered in a real world context.  The priority will be to use technologies and interventions effectively, efficiently and cost-effectively to have a direct impact on targeted populations.