Background and Overview of the Study
In July 2004, the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR), in partnership with the National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR), awarded $2.1 million to a team of researchers from across Canada for a research project entitled "Autism Spectrum Disorders: Pathways to Better Outcomes." The major objectives of the project include:
- to describe the heterogeneous developmental pathways of various outcomes in a large cohort of preschool children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD);
- to identify the inter-relationships among potential mediators and moderators associated with better outcomes;
- to examine ASD policy-making in Canada to improve the interactions between researchers, policy-makers, and parents.
Headed by Dr. Peter Szatmari, of McMaster University, the national team also includes researchers from Dalhousie University, McGill University, the university of Toronto, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Alberta.
In March 2005, the BC Ministries of Children and Family Development, Health Services, and Education announced additional funding of $1.275 million to support the inclusion of children from BC in the project. This increases the total sample size in the CIHR project to 400 children. Inclusion of BC children is important since the early intervention experiences of children with ASD in this province are quite different from those in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta. In addition, the BC project will also include a study aimed at evaluating the accuracy and stability of autism diagnoses in young children with ASD in the province. The answers will provide information about the current diagnostic process and, depending on the results, may enable diagnosticians to streamline the process and thus reduce the length of time between referral and diagnosis. The children with ASD involved in the national project will be included in this study, along with children with developmental disabilities other than ASD.
In January 2009, CIHR awarded an additional $1.9 million to the research team for Phase II of the project. The additional funding will enable the research team to follow the children and their families to the age of 11 (grade 5). In particular, the team will examine school factors that influence outcomes that include friendships and social relationships.
The BC research project is co-directed by Dr. Pat Mirenda of UBC (who is also a memeber of the national project team) and Drs. Vikram Dua and Stephen Wellington, Co-Directors of the BC Autism Assessment Network (BCAAN) and the Provincial Autism Resource Centre (PARC) at Children and Women's Health Centre in Vancouver. The Project is fudned from 2005 - 2010.