Project Description:
University Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment (UCAN). UCAN is an interdisciplinary team of professionals concerned with autism and neurodevelopmental disabilities in children, provides and develops standards for quality assessment and training and contributes to knowledge for differential diagnoses. It is collaborative effort between the NCED, Department of Speech Pathology, and School of Medicine.
The core value of the UCAN Assessment Team includes facilitating open access to diagnostic evaluation for children in need. This means providing individualized outcomes from assessments that have a meaningful impact on children and families. It also provides timely and affordable assessment and follow-up to facilitate access to appropriate interventions. As a group of professionals, the team operates dynamically and is motivated to provide service to the community. The purpose of the UCAN Assessment Team is to improve differentiation between autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities. There is a significant need for this approach to assessment in Nevada especially in the rural and frontier communities. Therefore, UCAN offers training and education to other professionals to enable them to assess children to identify autism. Specialized training is provided for students and professionals in detection of autism and other related disabilities. The team has a subgroup of professionals who are conducting research projects on the assessment data. Trainees will participate in the multidisciplinary evaluation of children referred for possible ASD. The members of the UCAN evaluation team consists of representatives from pediatrics, child psychiatry, child psychology, child development, speech and audiology, clinical (child and family) social work, and occupational therapy. Evaluations provide a definitive diagnosis of any developmental disabilities and offer treatment recommendations to the family.
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Geographic Areas, Rural/Remote, Urban
