Summer 2017

DIRECTOR’S REPORT

Welcome to the Summer edition of Another Piece!

Staff Changes
I would like to welcome a few new staff to our fantastic team:

• Research Officer, Alex Haschek
• ASDetect Project Officer, Radhika Nair
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr Simon Bury (starting 2 Jan)
• Administrative Officer, Margaret Laughton (starting 8 Jan.)

We have also welcomed back from maternity leave our Autism CRC Biobank Research Officer, Melanie Muniandy.

Sadly, we also said farewell to our wonderful Administrative Officer Claire Hayden. Although she was only with us for a short time, she fit in to our team so well that we felt she had been here forever! I wish her well with her sea-change.

Events
Planning is currently underway for a series of events to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We started this series off early by hosting two events on campus in early November. (See below for details.) These featured two outstanding scholars:

• Professor Sally Rogers from the MIND Institute at UC Davis, Sacramento
• Professor Liz Pellicano, formerly from the Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE) at the Institute of Education at University College London.

I am delighted that Liz has moved back to Australia to undertake a Professorship in Education as Macquarie University and hope to involve her in future events.

Look out for more events in the first half of next year leading up to our 10th anniversary in June 2018.

Neurodiversity in the workplace
ANZ Bank and DXC Technology have started a new employment program for autistic adults – the first implementation in Melbourne. The successful applicants will work for DXC in cybersecurity and software testing roles in the ANZ Docklands offices.

DXC Technology have already recruited nearly 60 adults on the autism spectrum in implementations in Adelaide, Canberra and Brisbane. We are excited to continue to contribute to each of these initiatives via our research.

Our partners at Specialisterne have worked on a similar program at Westpac.
Read more here>

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Bringing parity to low and middle-income countries
.I recently travelled to Mumbai, India to attend the International Developmental Paediatrics Congress.

One of the objectives of this conference is to bridge the gaps in policy, practice and research that exist between low and middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs), like Australia. We have much to learn from one another, and I look forward to fostering new collaborations.

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 Season’s Greetings
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our staff, students, collaborators, stakeholders and readers the best for the festive season ahead. Wishing you all a Happy New Year, and hoping 2018 will be another excellent one for research in Autism.

**Please note: Our Centre will be closed from Friday 22nd December, re-opening Monday 8th January 2018.**

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RECENT OTARC EVENTS

AUSTRALASIAN SOCIETY FOR AUTISM RESEARCH (AsFAR)
Inaugural State Conference

We hosted the first ASfAR state-based conference at La Trobe on 10 November, which was well received. Professor Sally Rogers, from the MIND Institute at UC Davis, gave the keynote address, and we had both Victorian and interstate delegates attend the meeting. We received sponsorship from the Autism CRC, Amaze and the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), which is kindly acknowledged. We ran two parallel streams for much of the day, which speaks to the interest and the number of submissions received for presentation. I would like to acknowledge the Scientific and local Organising Committees, which each worked hard to ensure a successful day. The latter committee also contributed to a very successful community event hosted the day before.

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN AUTISM RESEARCH

OTARC hosted a free public event on 9 November. Professor Liz Pellicano gave the keynote speech, complemented by six speakers who were either parents or autistic individuals. The event was well attended and received, with many guests commenting particularly on the contributions of the community voices on OTARC’s research areas:

• Early Identification and Intervention
• Promoting Success in Adulthood
• Comorbid Conditions.

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STUDENT COMPLETIONS

Congratulations to the following students who submitted their final requirements this year. A special mention goes to Megan Clark, whose thesis was in the top 5%; one examiner wrote:

“All told the thesis is comprehensive, novel, and will have a substantial contribution to the understanding of the developmental profile of school-age children with ASD”

PhD  Cathy Bent Emma Baker Megan Clark

Doctor of Clinical Psychology  Maria Lambrou Zoe Vinen

Masters  Andrew Halim Deniz Ozbilgin Felicity Peel

Honours  Daniel Berends Emily Canton Paula Grogan Siobhan Korbut Stephanie Roussis

 

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MEDIA COVERAGE

Professor Dissanayake was interviewed for this story on the ABC TV program Lateline, about the DXC/ANZ employment program.

http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/the-autism-advantage:-why-anz-is-the-latest-big/9225604

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RESEARCH STUDIES RECRUITING

ASDETECT EVALUATION STUDY

Do you have a child between 11 and 30 months? Learn why pointing and other communication milestones are important for children’s development by joining this study to evaluate our award-winning early detection mobile app.

 Participate in this study – learn more

 

STUDY OF AUSTRALIAN SCHOOL LEAVERS WITH AUTISM
Are you aged between 15 and 25, or the parent/carer of someone who is? We are seeking participants for our longitudinal study of post-school outcomes.

 Participate in this study – learn more

 

THE AUSTRALIAN AUTISM BIOBANK
An Autism CRC signature project. OTARC is the Victorian collection site.

We are seeking children with ASD aged 2-17 years, as well as children *without* a diagnosis of ASD and their parents to participate as part of our community comparison group.

 Participate in this study – learn more

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NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS

We’re pleased to report a positive response to the concerted campaign run by Amaze, OTARC and many other organisations to encourage the Victorian State government to adopt the recommendations of the report

The priority actions recommended include

• funding of $22 million
• support for transition from secondary school
• the creation of an Autism State Plan.

Thanks for helping make this happen!

Read the summary response here (pdf)>

Parents & Teachers: Emotion-based learning for children with ASD 

Westmead Feelings Program 1
Teach children with ASD and mild ID to understand their own and others’ emotions

Westmead Feelings Program 1 (WFP 1) is a 15-month intervention program teaching children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and mild intellectual disability (ID) about emotional understanding and social awareness, in close collaboration with parents, teachers and facilitators. Not just clinic-based, the Program helps parents and teachers become emotion coaches, supporting children to manage their feelings in everyday settings.

Delivered in fun and engaging group sessions, WFP 1 provides the opportunity for children with similar abilities to form long-lasting friendships. Parent sessions connect families with each other in a safe environment to share experiences and support, while sessions for teachers ensure cohesive implementation of WFP 1 strategies across the school.

Find out more>

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Parents & Teachers:
Emotion-based learning for children with ASD 

Westmead Feelings Program 1
Teach children with ASD and mild ID to understand their own and others’ emotions

Westmead Feelings Program 1 (WFP 1) is a 15-month intervention program teaching children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and mild intellectual disability (ID) about emotional understanding and social awareness, in close collaboration with parents, teachers and facilitators. Not just clinic-based, the Program helps parents and teachers become emotion coaches, supporting children to manage their feelings in everyday settings.

Delivered in fun and engaging group sessions, WFP 1 provides the opportunity for children with similar abilities to form long-lasting friendships. Parent sessions connect families with each other in a safe environment to share experiences and support, while sessions for teachers ensure cohesive implementation of WFP 1 strategies across the school.

Find out more>

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NORTHLAND SHOPPING CENTRE SENSORY DAY A SUCCESS

We were delighted to support the first Sensory Shopping Day at Northland Shopping Centre, in partnership with Amaze. Many people not on the spectrum commented how much better the experience of shopping with low sensory stimulation, was for them as well! This anecdotal evidence confirms something we’ve known for some time:  reasonable adjustments made for people with autism (particularly for school students) end up benefiting everyone.

Northland has been a leader with their Quiet Room at the mall. Many other companies are now following their lead, with supermarket giant, Coles, rolling out a quiet hour across 68 of their stores!’

After tips for managing the festive season with your kids? This article on Amaze’s website might help.

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Apply for a PhD Scholarship with us

OTARC’s Study of Australian School Leavers with Autism is *still* seeking applications for a PhD Scholarship worth $26,682 per annum over 3 years. International applicants welcome (conditions apply).
Applications will remain open until February 2018.

Learn more >

2016 Annual Report

Directors Message

We have completed nine years at OTARC, and this year’s Annual General Meeting launches us into celebrating our tenth year! Thus it was ten years ago that I met the extraordinary Mrs Olga Tennison who made possible Australia’s first dedicated centre for autism research. Her decade of generosity and support has meant that we have been able to increase autism research capacity in Australia, which would not have otherwise been possible.

The last year has been a year of awards for our free mobile app ASDetect which detects autism in toddlers aged 11 to 30 months. To date, the app has been downloaded over 15 000 times, and won both the Victorian and National iAwards for Research and Development Project of the Year. As one often finalists in the Google Impact Challenge, work is underway to translate ASDetect into Spanish and Mandarin, two of the most common world languages. And Dr Josephine Barbaro, upon whose work the app is based, won the Autism CRC Research Translation Award, for the second time!

Our work with the Autism Cooperative Research Centre progresses well, with one of its signature projects, the Australian Autism Biobank, being extended to enable the collection of biological materials (hair, urine, faeces) in addition to phenotypic data and blood – and not only in children with autism and their parents, but also their siblings, as well as children without autism. This database will be a unique research resource for Australia and beyond.

Our research on employment of people with autism, in partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprises, has continued to grow, with the Dandelion Program having been extended in 2016 to include the Australian Department of Defence (with a focus on border security),in addition to the Department of Human Services. Adjunct Professor Michael Fieldhouse from HPE has been leading the charge to ensure that people with autism have career opportunities afforded to them within corporate organisations in Australia.

In conclusion, OTARC has had another successful year thanks to the stellar efforts of our staff and students, and our partners who collaborate with us to achieve better outcomes for people with autism and their families. I hope you enjoy reading this Annual Report which charts our activities, research and otherwise, throughout 2016.

(full report available here)