• Social cognition
• Communication
• Executive functioning, including
  • Planning/organization skills
  • Flexibility skills
  • Inhibition skills
  • Working memory skills
  • Self-monitoring skills

• Developmental/clinical psychology
• Neuropsychology
• Developmental neuropsychology
• Psychiatry
• Speech and language pathology

• Developmental pediatrics
• Genetics
• Neurology

• Clinical services
  The multidisciplinary staff specializes in evaluation and treatment of children from infancy to young adulthood who may have autism, Asperger syndrome, or other disorders of social development.
• Research
  The Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders conducts a variety of research studies, investigating the genetic, neurocognitive, behavioral, and social factors associated with autism, and is always seeking participants.
• Professional training
  Training in neuropsychology, psychology and psychiatry is provided at the pre-doctoral externship, pre-doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship levels.
• Community Education and Advocacy
  The Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders disseminates up-to-date information to families, patients, school personnel, physicians and other health providers, and community agency personnel through seminars, workshops, in-services, and consultations. Faculty also frequently offer talks and workshops. Previous and ongoing efforts include newsletters with research updates, faculty talks and workshops, community outreach lecture series, and a parent advisory committee.

• Multidisciplinary evaluation
• Neuropsychological evaluation
• Developmental evaluation
• Speech and language evaluation
• Social skills training groups
• Psychiatric services
• Additional Consultation and Support Services

• Review of medical and developmental histories
• Complete neuropsychological or developmental evaluation of cognitive, social, and adaptive functioning
• Comprehensive speech/language assessment of verbal and nonverbal communication skills
• Standardized diagnostic play/interview session

• Intellectual functioning
• Language
• Visual-spatial skills
• Attention
• Executive function
• Memory
• Social problem solving
• Fine motor abilities

• Intellectual functioning
• Language
• Visual-spatial skills
• Fine motor abilities
• Daily living skills
• General development.

• Development of the mechanics of speech (e.g., articulation)
• Perception of language (e.g., phonological processing)
• Comprehension of language
• Expressive language
• Higher order language functioning
• Social use of language (e.g., pragmatics)

Social Skills Training Groups

We offer training groups for children who have been diagnosed with High Functioning Autism, Pervasive Developmental Disorder – Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), Asperger Syndrome or a social learning disorder.

The topics covered in each group are designed to meet the specific needs of the group's participants

• Identifying and responding to emotional states
• Handling teasing and bullying
• Developing strategies for making and maintaining friendships
• Developing appropriate nonverbal communication

• Individual therapy (talk therapy)
• Family therapy (talk therapy)
• Behavior management consultation for children and their parents
• Speech and language therapy
• Psychopharmacological management (medications)
• School consultation
• Educational advocacy

• Clinical Externships in Pediatric Neuropsychology
• Clinical Externships in Evaluation, Consultation and Treatment
• Research Externships in Neuropsychology and Treatment
• Psychology Internship Program
• Clinical Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Autism
• Clinical Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Pediatric Neuropsychology and Autism
• T-32 Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Autism

• Neuropsychological/behavioral research, which uses established state-of-the-art diagnostic and cognitive tests that characterize the strengths and weaknesses of autism spectrum disorders, as well as new measures that help us address specific theoretical questions regarding the developmental trajectory of ASD. This type of research may involve participating in paper-and-pencil tasks, computer tasks, and an intelligence test.
• Functional and structural imaging research, which examines the brain areas that are involved in cognitive abilities, such as shifting tasks, learning, and social perception. This type of research may involve participating in MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans.
• Genetics investigations that explore the causes of autism.
• Intervention research to develop effective school-based treatments aimed at improving EF skills that directly impede academic performance on a daily basis.

• The Center for Autism is investigating social and non-social cognitive skills through the use of genetic, brain imaging, and neuropsychological measures. CASD is recruiting children with ASD and typically developing peers who are ages 6-12 years old.
• Georgetown University (Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory and the Center for Functional and Molecular Imaging) is studying brain development in children with ASD and typically developing peers who are ages 6-12 years old. In another study, Georgetown University is investigating face-processing in adults with ASD or adult relatives of people with ASD.
• The Lab of Brain and Cognition in the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) is recruiting adolescents/young adults (ages 13-22) with ASD on imaging, eye tracking and genetics protocols.
• Collaborators at the Ivymount School are developing a school-based intervention to improve flexibility.
• CASD also collaborates with other institutions, such as George Washington University, The University of Maryland at College Park, as well as other departments within Children’s National Medical Center.

• Working Memory – Remembering information and using it to complete a task.
• Inhibition – Stopping an action or behavior that may have been appropriate earlier but is now inappropriate.
• Implicit learning – Learning that occurs naturally. That is, the individual is not given specific instructions to memorize the material.
• Cognitive flexibility – Shifting attention from one task to another or to view a stimulus in multiple ways.
• Processing speed – The speed with which an individual can take in information and make an accurate response.