Center News

The pandemic has only amplified an already alarming mental health crisis among the nation’s young people, but there are ways for parents and communities to help, explained Duke Autism Clinic providers in a Duke Health media briefing this summer. The behavioral health experts discussed the mental health crisis among children and teens, which the American Academy of Pediatrics has declared a “national emergency.”

The neurodiversity perspective is challenging autism researchers and interventionists to reconsider what should be the goals of early intervention, and specifically, whether the goal of intervention should be preventing, or promoting the loss of, an autism diagnosis.

A clinical trial comparing the effects of intervention intensity and style on outcomes, which was conducted by center researchers, is among the IACC's latest Summary of Advances in Autism Research. Plain language summaries of the top 20 advances in autism biomedical and services research, as selected by members of the IACC, are included.

All are welcome to join us for our next presentation in our Autism Speaker Series. Featuring leading investigators, clinicians, and practitioners sharing their latest research, interventions, and treatments.

In an analysis of reviews published between 2009 and 2020 that assessed therapeutic or educational interventions for very young children with or at high likelihood for autism, researchers, led by Duke Center for Autism Associate Director Lauren Franz, MBChB, MPH, found that certain types of interventions—called naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions, developmental interventions, and behavioral interventions—can provide benefits, but there were significant limitations in the quality of the evidence and many differences in how studies were performed.

Black and Hispanic people with autism or intellectual disability in North Carolina are less likely to receive a Medicaid waiver for home and community-based services than their white peers are, according to a new study.

Team works to promote neurodiversity at Duke
Inside Duke Health, Tuesday, April 19, 2022 by Morag MacLachlan

Dr. Geraldine Dawson, the William Cleland Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University talks with The Real Spectrum about new techniques in autism screening, early intervention strategies and some of the research she is conducting. Read the full interview in The Real Spectrum here. 

"It's important to get connected early. No one - regardless of where they live or what recources they have available to them - should have to wait extended periods of time to start services that can support child and family quality of life." 

Duke Center for Autism Associate Director Dr. Lauren Franz joins Autism Weekly podcast to discuss the power of early interventions, the need for healthcare access, and how our research is making a difference.