What's New in AIR-B3?
December 22, 2016
The AIR-B3 network consists of 5 sites--- UCLA, UC Davis, University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and University of Rochester. We have been actively preparing for the intervention studies we proposed, Mind the Gap and Building Better Bridges. Both of these intervention teams have been collecting pilot data, and refining the interventions which focus on the gap between diagnosis and services for many low-resourced families (Mind the Gap), and in maintaining continuity between major schooling transitions, such as between preschool and Kindergarten, elementary to secondary school (Building Better Bridges).
A major activity of the network this past year has been to expand our community partnerships. Our overall Network community partner, Healthy African American Families (HAAF) has continued to help us develop our expertise in Community Partnered Participatory Research (CPPR) while we have expanded our partnerships in each community. These partnerships consist of local school districts, community health centers, and community parent groups, among others. In conjunction with our community partners, we held our AIR-B Network conference in October in Philadelphia. This free conference, "Strengthening the Bond: Families Living with Autism in our Community" was at capacity, and held in the Free Library in downtown Philadelphia. All four sites were represented as speakers where the audience was largely parents of children with autism and community service providers.
AIR-B investigators have also been active in participation of their local community conferences and meetings. For example, in Los Angeles, community partner Fiesta Educativa held a parent conference in October that featured our local AIR-B team as speakers, and community partner, South Central Los Angeles Regional Center (SLARC) launched a "Lunch and Learn" meeting on transitions for youth in collaboration with our AIR-B team.
We have recently published several new papers using our AIR-B data, and are continuing to focus our efforts on low resourced families of children with ASD, and under-researched topics, such as girls with ASD.
Dean, M, Harwood, R., & Kasari, C. (2016). The art of camouflage: Gender differences in the social behaviors of girls and boys with ASD. Autism.
Locke, J, Williams, J, Shih, W, & Kasari, C (2016). Characteristics of socially successful elementary school-aged children with autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
Azad, G., Locke, J., Kasari, C., and Mandell, D. (2016). Ethnicity, disability, and grade: Social relationships in children with autism spectrum disorders in elementary school. Autism. 1362361315627792.
Iadarola, S., Oakes, L. A., Shih, W., Dean, M., Smith, T., & Orlich, F. (2016). Relationship Among Anxiety, Depression, and Family Impact in Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder and Average-Range IQ. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 1088357616672416.
