4th Annual Autism Spectrum Disorder Update - Talk Summaries and Speaker Profiles
Carl Feinstein, MDCarl Feinstein, MD is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Autism Center at Packard Children’s Hospital. Dr. Feinstein has devoted his career to advancing knowledge and patient care for children with autism spectrum disorders, intellectual and developmental disabilities, and genetically-based neurodevelopmental disorders. He has achieved national recognition for his contributions in these areas. Dr. Feinstein is an experienced psychotherapist who has specialized in children and adolescents with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s disorder, and the many youngsters who have difficulties with social relationships who may not fully meet diagnostic criteria for one of these disorders, but who are suffering because of their disability in making and keeping friends.
Corinne Callan has been an educational specialist at the Children’s Health Council for the past nine years. Corinne studied psychology at the University of Western Ontario and special education at the University of Alberta. She worked as an educational psychologist in Alberta and was on the Board of the Edmonton Autism Society for ten years, before moving to California in 1999. Corinne has two adult children, one of whom has autism.
In this lecture Dr. Colamarino will explain current thoughts about the biological underpinnings of autism and provide an overview of ongoing research directions in autism. To help you understand the newest areas of autism exploration, she will also give an overview of how basic research is conceptualized and provide a simple understanding of the anatomy of the brain along with some of its key terminology.
Sophia is a Consulting Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University Medical School. Sophia joined Cure Autism Now in November 2004 as Science Program Director prior to its merger with Autism Speaks. During her tenure at Autism Speaks she managed Autism Speaks’ Biology Division and developed several important research initiatives, including new efforts in neuropathology, innovative technology and translational biology research. She also spearheaded the development of an open access policy for publications resulting from Autism Speaks’ funded research and has been appointed to the national advisory committee of the NIH's PubMed Central science archive.
Sophia graduated with dual degrees in Biological Sciences and Psychology from Stanford University. She received her PhD in Neurosciences from the University of California, San Francisco, where she studied brain development with distinguished neuroscientist Marc Tessier-Lavigne, PhD. After receiving her PhD, Sophia conducted research on the genetic disorder Kallmann Syndrome at the Telethon Institute for Genetics and Medicine in Milan, Italy, led by human geneticist Andrea Ballabio, MD. She then returned to the US to work at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA, studying adult neural stem cells and brain regeneration in the laboratory of stem cell pioneer Fred H. Gage, PhD.
Dr. Dolmetsch's talk will focus on new advances in our understanding of the underlying molecular and cellular basis of autism spectrum disorders. He directs a laboratory at Stanford Medical School focused on studying and treating autism. He will talk about a technique recently developed in his laboratory to study the development of the brain of autistic children in a petri dish using human stem cells. Dr. Dolmetsch and his colleagues has generated stem cells from children with autism and used these cells to generated miniature brains in the lab. This has allowed them to study how brain development is altered in children with autism. It also provides a fast and efficient platform for developing and testing pharmacological treatments for autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
Dr. Ricardo Dolmetsch is a faculty member in the Department of Neurobiology at Stanford University where he directs a laboratory that studies the underlying cellular and molecular basis of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). He is a graduate of Brown University, received his graduate degree from Stanford and did his postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School. His group has pioneered the use of adult stem cells to study the development of the brain and the mechanisms that lead to neurodevelopmental disease. He has received numerous awards for his work including the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award in 2007 and the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award in 2008. He is the author of more than 30 scholarly publications and is the parent of a child with ASD.
Dr. Elliott will discuss the types of medications that sometimes are useful in treating specific problems commonly associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Unfortunately, no medications to date have been found to address the core problems of ASD, and many children with ASD no not need any time of medication. However, some issues that can arise, including anxiety, high activity levels, compulsive behaviors, and self-injurious behaviors, can be good targets for medication, and successful treatment may enhance the lives of the children as well as their caregivers. Dr. Elliott will discuss both the kinds of behaviors that are especially apt to respond to medications and the issues parents and physicians need to consider when contemplating the use of such medications.
After obtaining his PhD and MD through the Stanford Medical Scientist Training Program, Dr. Elliott spent several years working on research policy first at the Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., and then at the Division of Health Policy Research and Education at Harvard. Upon completing training in general psychiatry at McLean Hospital/Harvard and in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Stanford, Dr. Elliott joined the Stanford faculty in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 1986. He was Director of The Children’s Center at Langley Porter at UCSF from 1989 to 2006, when he retired as an Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychiatry. In July 2006, he became Chief Psychiatrist for Children’s Health Council (CHC) and also serves as Medical Director. He is a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry (Affiliated) in the Stanford School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.
Dr. Elliott has a longstanding interest in improving the diagnosis and treatment of severe psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents. He has been involved at a national level in helping to call the nation’s attention to the need for more research on these disorders, serving as Vice-Chair for an Institute of Medicine study that resulted in a child mental health research initiative at National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Starting in 1990, he was co-Principle Investigator of one of six sites that created and carried out the NIMH-sponsored study known as the Multimodal Treatment of ADHD (MTA), comparing the short- and long-term effects of medication and behavioral interventions in young children with ADHD.
As a clinician and as a researcher, Dr. Elliott strives to clarify the appropriate use of psychoactive medications in relieving the distress of children and adolescents with severe mental illnesses while minimizing risks to their immediate welfare and long-term development. In 2006, he authored Medicating Young Minds, a book for parents facing that difficult decision. He has worked extensively with patients with autism and their families since 1986.
Noah Feinstein studies engagement with science: the interpersonal and intrapersonal processes through which people connect their lived experience with scientific institutions, artifacts and explanations. His past projects have examined engagement from both the “public” side as well as the “science” side, encompassing research with parents of recently diagnosed autistic children, case managers in a mental health clinic, and scientists conducting museum-based science outreach. Each projected investigated how science-related questions and resources were embedded in a broader fabric of concerns, attempting to isolate the semantic and cross-cultural tensions that short-circuited engagement. New projects focus on: engagement with science among agricultural producers in a shifting ecological “tension zone”; the conceptualization of equity in informal science learning environments; and the uptake of public engagement research in climate change policy documents.
Noah Feinstein is an assistant professor of science education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research focuses on science literacy and public engagement with science. He is particularly interested in how people learn about personally important science and health topics. In the past, he has worked with parents whose children had recently been diagnosed with autism, attempting to understand how science mattered to them as they learned about and advocated for their children. He is currently studying how museums and science centers address issues of equity in science learning, and how farmers think about climate change. He is broadly interested in: equity in science education, education for sustainable development, science and technology studies, autism and developmental disorders, scientist-educator collaborations and informal science learning. He is an affiliate at the Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies.
Grace Gengoux, PhD, BCBA-DThis presentation will discuss evidence-based strategies for enhancing the social communication abilities of children with autism spectrum disorders and the critical role parents can play in providing natural learning opportunities during daily routines at home. I will provide an introduction to Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) and outline key motivational teaching strategies which have been proven to help children with autism learn more quickly, generalize their skills, and enjoy the learning process. I will highlight recent research on PRT which has been conducted here at Stanford which shows that parents can learn to implement PRT techniques effectively during a 10-week parent training group. You will also hear about exciting new directions in PRT research. You will have the opportunity to see examples of PRT techniques being applied to teach skills ranging from first words to cooperative play with peers and get practical tips you can use as soon as you get home.
Dr. Grace Gengoux is a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA-D) with expertise in the clinical evaluation and behavioral treatment of children with ASD. She has specialized training in Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT), having completed her doctoral studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Koegel (one of the developers of PRT). Dr. Gengoux completed her internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center where she initiated a program of research piloting a naturalistic behavioral intervention for infants who are at increased genetic risk for autism and their parents. Dr. Gengoux has conducted research evaluating the effects of PRT on the social-communication competence of young children with autism, co-authored several papers and chapters on naturalistic behavioral treatments for autism, and presented research at both national and international conferences. Dr. Gengoux joined the faculty at Stanford in March 2010 and is developing a program of treatment services, clinical training, and applied research related to naturalistic behavioral treatments for children with autism and their families. Throughout her work, Dr. Gengoux has remained committed to the challenge of designing and implementing treatments which result in meaningful outcomes for children and families, and to the translation of evidence-based treatments into community and educational settings.
Antonio Hardan, MDDr. Hardan is the Director of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Clinic at Packard Children’s Hospital and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He has more than 15 years experience in working with individuals with autism. He is an expert in providing psychopharmacological treatment to these individuals. His research work has focused on investigating the neurobiology of autism and the development of innovative treatment strategies for this disorder. He has published extensively in this field.
Linda Lotspeich, MDDr. Lotspeich specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of children and adolescents with autism. She is a child psychiatrist who has worked with special needs children for more than 30 years. Dr. Lotspeich and her colleagues at Stanford have developed a parent education program to support parents of children with autism spectrum disorders. Dr. Lotspeich received her MA degree in Education and her medical degree from the University of Cincinnati. She completed residencies in General Psychiatry and Child Psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Lotspeich was a special education teacher for five years, before deciding to pursue a medical degree to study the neurobiology of autism. In 2005 Dr. Lotspeich spent two years developing and supporting clinical services for autism spectrum disorders at Northern California Kaiser Permanente. She returned to Stanford to expand services, particularly helping parents learn strategies that support their child’s development.
Sleep problems are increasingly recognized as a key feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Impaired sleep in ASD is a source of significant distress to both the patient and caregiver and may lead to, or exacerbate the cognitive and behavioral core symptoms of the disorder. Sleep disturbance can reflect very different sleep disorders many of which can be alleviated with a range of effective treatment approaches. This presentation will describe the most common sleep disorders experienced by children and adolescents with ASD and the impact of these disorders on cognition and behavior in this patient population. Further, it will outline the main therapeutic approaches to treating these sleep disorders, including behavioral intervention, pharmacotherapy and use of chronotherapeutics. Finally, it will consider whether perturbed sleep in ASD can inform our understanding of the etiology of this disorder.
Dr. Ruth O’Hara is a Cognitive Psychologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, at Stanford University School of Medicine and Associate Director of the Sierra Pacific Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC). The focus of her research is investigating the contribution of sleep disorders to neuropsychiatric and neurocognitive disorders in late life and she is a member of the DSM 5 Sleep-Wake Disorders work group. Most recently, Dr. O’Hara has expanded her research to investigate the impact of sleep disorders on a broader range of psychiatric disorders, across the lifespan. In 2010 she was awarded a Simon’s Foundation Grant to better characterize sleep in patients with Autism. Sleep problems are increasingly recognized as a key feature of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Impaired sleep in ASD can be of significant distress to both patient and caregiver and may lead to, or exacerbate the cognitive and behavioral core symptoms of the disorder. Sleep disturbance can reflect very different sleep disorders many of which can be alleviated with a range of effective treatment approaches, but we do not have sufficient information on sleep architecture and dysregulation in ASD. Dr. O’Hara’s current work aims to describe the range and type of sleep disorders experienced in individuals with ASD and to examine the impact of the type and severity of sleep disorders on the cognitive and behavioral symptoms in these individuals with ASD.
Jennifer Phillips, PhDDr. Phillips specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders and developmental delay. As a clinical psychologist who provides direct services to families, her primary research role has been one of collaborator, providing expertise in child development and neurodevelopmental assessment. She and her colleague, Dr. Linda Lotspeich, have developed a parent education program for families of children with autism spectrum conditions. Dr. Phillips received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship focusing on autism spectrum disorders at Arizona State University, as well as a clinical fellowship in child psychology at Stanford School of Medicine. In 2005 she spent a year in Boston, establishing an autism diagnostic clinic as part of the May Institute’s National Autism Center.