Description

"The Philadelphia Autism Instructional Methods Study: Moving Evidence-Based Practice Into Community Settings"

David Mandell, Sc.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Associate Director, Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research, University of Pennsylvania; Associate Director, Center for Autism Research, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

The number of evidence-based behavioral interventions for children with autism has increased dramatically over the last few decades, but community practice has lagged far behind. Instruction and support for children with autism in most schools does not mirror the evidence base and generally has been found ineffective in promoting student outcomes. The Philadelphia Autism Instructional Methods Study (AIMS) represents an academic-public partnership designed to improve intervention quality for elementary school children with autism in the School District of Philadelphia. It also constitutes the largest randomized trial to date of a behavioral intervention for children with autism, having enrolled 494 children in 83 classrooms. AIMS has provided important information about the effectiveness of proven-efficacious interventions for children with autism in public school settings, critical moderators of outcome, and issues related to long-term maintenance of evidence-based practice.

Dr. Mandell’s research focuses on the organization, financing, and delivery of services to children with autism, and provides the basis for the development of interventions at the individual, provider, and system levels to decrease the age at which children with autism are recognized and enter treatment, and to improve the services and supports available to them and their families. He is the recipient of a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Career Development Award to understand why the diagnosis of autism is so often delayed, and he is principal investigator on an NIMH-funded study to examine the relationship between states’ policies and their delivery of health services to children with autism.

A reception will follow the lecture.

No registration is necessary.