SeededGround is proud to join Drexel University’s A.J. Drexel Autism Institute on a new endeavor that will evaluate approaches for addressing the divide within the autism community around the use of applied behavioral analysis (ABA)-based interventions,
SG will serve as one of 2 facilitative leads on this project.
Excerpts from the official press release:
The effort builds on a collaborative, multidisciplinary, international team of clinicians, researchers and autistic community leaders — co-founded by Dena Gassner, PhD, senior research scientist in the Autism Institute’s Life Course Outcomes Program and Social Connections and Treatment Lab, also a principal investigator of the grant — that has sought to make progress on these issues for almost four years.
“The divide between those who have found the treatments harmful and those who have found it helpful has not allowed for safe and supportive discourse to find a place of understanding, healing and advocacy for autistic individuals,” said Gassner.
The aim of the project is to examine different ways of bringing these groups – who have disparate experiences, but a common goal of improving the lives of autistic people – together to guide the future of this field. Specifically, the project is designed to study engagement — the ways in which different people come together and feel heard and valued. This project leverages a community-driven, participatory team science approach to examine different methods for centering autistic people in conversations on the use of ABA for autistic people.
Read the full press release here.