from ACT’s 14th Annual Focus on Research

Filmed April 6th, 2018

Presented by Professor Anthony Bailey, Chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, UBC

In this video, Professor Bailey, Chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UBC, provides an insightful overview of the epidemiology of ASD in Canada. After discussing the methodology used to develop the National ASD Surveillance System report, Dr. Bailey presents a summary of the findings and compares Canada’s rate of ASD among children and youth, to the situation internationally.

The Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Surveillance System (NASS) is a federally funded initiative to estimate and monitor the number of individuals with ASD. The initial phase of the program estimates this number among children and youth. The findings of the 2015 NASS report focuses on those aged 5–17 years, from six provinces and one territory: Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec, British Columbia and the Yukon.

Part 1: Background information on ASD Surveillance

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Part 2: ASD Among Children and Youth in Canada 2018 – a Report of the National ASD Surveillance System

Summary of findings

• Among children and youth 5–17 years old across seven provinces and territory, the combined prevalence of ASD for the year 2015 is 1 in 66 (15.2 per 1,000).
• Males were diagnosed with ASD four times more frequently than females. NASS found that 1 in 42 males (23.9 per 1,000) and 1 in 165 females (6.0 per 1,000) aged 5–17 years old were diagnosed with ASD.
• Retrospective data from 2003–2015 from Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec showed that, among 5–14 year olds, ASD prevalence has increased from 6.0 per 1,000 to 19.6 per 1,000 in Newfoundland and Labrador; from 5.0 per 1,000 to 17.7 per 1,000 in Prince Edward Island; and, from 3.5 per 1,000 to 15.7 per 1,000 in Quebec.
• In comparison to the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network from the United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which looks only at 8 year olds, NASS’ prevalence was 1 in 63 (8 year olds) in the year 2015 versus the ADDM Network’s prevalence of 1 in 68 in the year 2012.
  

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Part 3: Question & Answer Period

 

from ACT’s 12th Annual Focus on Research

Filmed April 15th, 2016

Abstract

Drs. Iarocci and Gardiner present findings from a mixed-methods study with caregivers of individuals with ASD in British Columbia. Participants reported on their satisfaction with available funds and resources. This research revealed important insights into the strengths and challenges associated with the BC funding model, as perceived by service users. The conclusions are, however, limited by the lack of diversity represented within the sample. It is critical that methods of engaging families who live outside of major centres, and who represent diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds are developed. Such approaches acknowledge the rich diversity represented within the province, and ensure that evidence-based recommendations have value for all families of children with ASD. The video concludes with a discussion on the implications for provincial policy and practice, and present strategies for including under-served families in research.

Download copy of slides

Presenter Bios

Grace Iarocci, PhD, R.Psych

Grace Iarocci, PhD., R. Psych. is a Professor of Psychology at Simon Fraser University, and Director of the Autism and Developmental Disorders Lab. She is a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Scholar, and an Autism Research Training Program mentor.

 

 

Emily Gardiner, PhD, BCCH

Emily Gardiner, PhD is a postdoctoral fellow with the Department of Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia. She is conducting her current research out of the Child and Family Research Institute within The M.I.N.D. Research Theme.

 

Part 1: Introduction and Literature Review

Part 2: ASD and Service Delivery

Part 3: Survey and Interview Results

Part 4: Research Discussion and Policy Implications

Part 5: Study Limitations and Hard-to-Reach Populations

 

from ACT’s 12th Annual Focus on Research

Filmed April 16th, 2016

Abstract

Many bilingual families are told by professionals to speak only one language (in Canada, either English or French) to their child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The rationale for this recommendation is that the linguistic input to which these children are exposed should be as simplistic as possible in order to facilitate language learning, given the social-communicative challenges inherent in ASD. Until recently, few studies had compared language development in monolingual vs. bilingual children with ASD to determine if exposure to more than one language is, in fact, problematic. This presentation will summarize the research in this area, much of which was conducted in Canada, with recommendations for bilingual parents and for professionals who support them.

Presenter: Pat Mirenda, PhD, BCBA

Pat Mirenda is a Professor and Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration in Autism at the University of British Columbia. She has published numerous research articles and presents frequently at international and national conferences. Her research examines the developmental trajectories of children with autism and their families.

 

 

Part 1: Introduction and Parents’ Experiences

• Jegatheesan, B., (2011) Multilingual Development in Children with Autism: Perspectives of South Asian Muslim Immigrant Parents on Raising a Child with a Communicative Disorder in Multilingual Contexts
• Fernandez y Garcia, E., Breslau, J., Hansen, R., & Miller, E., (2012) Unintended consequences: An ethnographic narrative case series exploring language recommendations for bilingual families of children with autistic spectrum disorders
• Yu, B., (2013) Issues in Bilingualism and Heritage Language Maintenance: Perspectives of Minority-Language Mothers of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Part 2: Review of the Research on ASD and Bilingualism

• Website for Pathways Study in ASD http://www.asdpathways.ca/
• Seung, H., Siddiqi, S., & Elder, J.H., (2006) Intervention outcomes of a bilingual child with autism
• Hambly & Fombonne (2012) The impact of bilingual environments on language development in children with autism spectrum disorders.
• Ohashi, Mirenda, et al., 2012 Comparing early language development in monolingual- and bilingual- exposed young children with autism spectrum disorders
• Valicenti-McDermott et al., (2013) Language differences between monolingual English and bilingual English-Spanish young children with autism spectrum disorders
• Hambly & Fombonne (2014) Factors influencing bilingual expressive vocabulary size in children with autism spectrum disorders
• Reetzke, Zou, Sheng, & Katsos (2015) Communicative Development in Bilingually Exposed Chinese Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders
• Howse, (2016) Verbal outcomes at school entry of monolingual and bilingual children with ASD who were minimally verbal at the time of diagnosis

Part 3: School-Age Children and Language

• Lam, T., (2015) Pragmatic skills of bilingual and monolingual children with autism spectrum disorder
• Macaro, S., (2015) A comparative study of executive functioning behaviours in bilingual and monolingual children with autism spectrum disorder

Part 4: Q&A