Current Research Studies at the Collaborative START Lab| UC Davis MIND Institute

The Autism Research Consortium in Behavioral Health (ARC-BH) is an interdisciplinary network committed to translating high quality evidence-based autism practices into public service systems. For more information visit our webpage.   

The FANS-EI Project seeks to support caregivers of young children with autism or social communication challenges during their early intervention. This study is recruiting early intervention providers offering services to families of young children.

Who can participate?

• Providers who are currently using early intervention in clinical practice, including a caregiver-coaching component, and working with young children with autism, high likelihood of autism, or social communication concerns.
• What does the study involve?
• Participate in a 1-hour virtual orientation
• Refer 2 families for participation
• Complete questionnaires

Why participate?

• Receive free caregiver coaching training to complete at your own pace.
• Participants will receive gift cards for their participation. Find more here or contact FANS-EI@health.ucdavis.edu. 

The Mind the Gap project, funded by the Autism Intervention Research Network on Behavioral Health (AIR-B 4), is dedicated to empowering families of children newly diagnosed with autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions by bridging the gap between diagnosis and access to critical services. The project addresses systemic challenges that families often face, such as navigating complex healthcare and educational systems, understanding available resources, and ensuring equitable access to supports.

Through partnerships with Family Resources and Empowerment Centers in California, Mind the Gap provides a curriculum for peer navigators to deliver targeted outreach, education, and support to families, especially those from traditionally underserved communities. The project equips families with knowledge about their child’s neurodevelopmental condition, evidence-based interventions, and service systems, empowering them to advocate effectively for their children. It also provides training for providers to ensure culturally responsive and family-centered care.

By fostering collaboration between families, service providers, and community partners, Mind the Gap aims to build a seamless pathway to services, reducing delays in accessing support and improving long-term outcomes for children with autism and their families.

The PALMS Project at the UC Davis MIND Institute is recruiting Applied Behavior Analysis agencies to participate in a research study to understand the effectiveness of best-practice early behavioral intervention and the Early Start Denver Model for young children with autism.

Why participate?

• Improve services: Contribute to the development of evidence-based practices
• Gain insights: Help understand how to better support clients and their families
• Receive training: Access free ESDM training for a portion of your providers during the study (and access training materials for all once the study is complete)
• Earn CEUs: Providers can earn up to 13.5 BABC® learning units

Eligibility requirements:

• Serve at least 5 autistic children under the age of 48 months
• Have providers who are not ESDM certified
• Accept Medicaid or other public funding for services

What's in it for you?
Some participating providers will be randomly chosen to receive free training in ESDM.
All participants will receive gift cards for their participation

Contact the PALMS Project today by completing an interest online form or emailing us at palmsproject@health.ucdavis.edu.  

Background
There are a growing number of children with autism in need of services in school and mental health programs. With the yearly cost of autism in the U.S. estimated to be $236 billion, developing and testing effective ways to scale up the use of evidence-based treatments for autism is critical.

Purpose
To improve provider (e.g., teachers, mental health therapists) training in evidence based treatments. Two studies will test ways to support providers in their learning and delivery of autism treatments. Study #1 will test the TEAMS model with An Individualized Mental Health Intervention for Autism(AIM HI) in publicly-funded outpatient and school-based mental health programs. Study #2 will test TEAMS with Classroom Pivotal Response Teaching (CPRT) in classrooms. The TEAMS model includes – TEAMS Leadership Institute (TLI) and TEAMS Individualized Provider Strategy for training (TIPS). Both studies will be conducted in San Diego, Sacramento, and Los Angeles counties.

Settings and Participants
Mental health programs and school districts can participate and will be randomized to receive different components of TEAMS. Leaders and Providers (mental health therapists or teachers) from participating districts/programs can also participate. All providers will receive free training and coaching/consultation in AIM HI or CPRT over 6-10 months.

The goal of the TEAMS EBP Leadership Institute project is to test how well our leadership training program can help district and program leaders select and carry out evidence-based autism interventions.

Leaders learn strategies to identify, assess, and apply research evidence so they can choose, measure, and keep interventions that address their district or program needs. Community-based mental health agencies and school districts in California can participate in the training program for 2-3 years. The first year is surveyed only. Leaders and providers (teachers or therapists) will complete quick surveys online in the Fall and Spring. Organizations will then be enrolled to receive the TEAMS EBP Leadership Institute in either 2024-2025 or 2025-2026. The Leadership Institute includes six training sessions and three brief coaching calls over six months.

The purpose of the Distance Learning Study is to develop and test a team charter-enhanced implementation strategy for distance training to increase the use and effectiveness of two evidence-based intervention practices for autism, AIM HI (“An Individualized Mental Health Intervention for ASD”) in publicly funded mental health services and CPRT (“Classroom Pivotal Response Teaching”) in public school classrooms. Training providers (i.e., therapists, teachers) in these settings to deliver these evidence-based practices improve child outcomes. However, distance is a barrier for children and families needing care and for high-quality provider training. Distance training requires individuals with different roles and backgrounds to work effectively and efficiently together. Team charters can help with distance training as it requires a team to write a plan that describes the team’s goals and each member’s roles and responsibilities.

This study seeks to pilot test a “team charter” approach to increase the reach of autism evidence-based practices through distance training. Leaders and providers in community-based mental health agencies and school districts are invited to participate in team charters for this pilot trial. The pilot trial will include initial training sessions and ongoing coaching with feedback over 5-6 months.

The goal of the TEDI study is to develop a way to assess infants’ development over telehealth, so that families do not always need to travel to a clinic to get a developmental evaluation. We would like to follow babies over time to see how they develop, and to get ongoing feedback from families about their experience so that we can make sure the method we develop will work for as many families as possible.

All study activities will occur in your home, no travel to the MIND Institute is required Currently enrolling families:

With Infants between the ages of 6-12 months, whose parents are concerned about their social interaction or communication
With access to internet-enabled video-device (smartphone, tablet, computer)
Willing and able to complete online questionnaires and complete a play-based assessment with their infant while coached over telehealth 5 times over the course of one year
Who primarily speak English in the home
Families will receive written reports from standardized questionnaire measures

Contact:  tedistudy@health.ucdavis.edu 

Autism Intervention Research Network on Behavioral Health (AIR-B)
The Autism Intervention Research Network on Behavioral Health (AIR-B) was a national network of researchers and community partners dedicated to improving behavioral interventions and outcomes for individuals with autism. AIR-B included development of several practices, including Mind the Gap, developed to support families of children with autism and other NDD (https://www.airbnetwork.org/resources).
https://www.airbnetwork.org/  

The goal of this research was to better understand the use of communication tools (ex. iPad, PECS, etc.) and how collaboration occurs about communication tool use in home/school settings for minimally verbal students, ages 2-10 years old, with autism.

The Project ImPACT (Improving Parents As Communication Teachers) study examined the effectiveness of training early intervention providers in Project ImPACT.
https://bridgecollaborative.sdsu.edu/ 

The TEAMS studies examine how to support providers in publicly-funded educational and mental health programs in better implementing evidence-based autism practices. We have looked at adaptation of the Teams Leadership Institute across projects. The studies looked at enhancing Classroom Pivotal Response Teaching (CPRT) in classrooms and An Individualized Mental Health Intervention for Autism(AIM HI) in publicly-funded outpatient and school-based mental health programs.

Link AIM HI to: https://www.cebc4cw.org/program/aim-hi/ 
Link CPRT to: https://education.sdsu.edu/research-innovation/cprt 
TEAMS: https://www.teamsasdstudy.org/