Recipient Organization
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
1680 MADISON AVENUE
WOOSTER,OH 44691
Performing Department
College of Human Ecology
Non Technical Summary
The prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), also known as Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDD) has risen substantially in U.S children. Children in military families have experienced parallel increases in the diagnosis of these disorders. Concern about adequate and appropriate treatment and education in military dependent children led to recent legislation (SEC.587. Education and Treatment Services for Military Dependent Children with Autism) requiring the Secretary of Defense to assess the availability of services for military dependent children with autism, determine best practices in providing services to these children, and make recommendations regarding the alignment and provision of future services to best practices.This start up project will conduct an initial review of best practices in providing educational services to children with autism. In addition, it will develop the processes and protocols to review the availability of adequate and appropriate services in and around military bases. The criteria to be used in developing recommendations to the department of defense based upon best practices and available services will also be developed.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
100%
Goals / Objectives
Objectives: The objectives of this start up project are to(1) Develop the structures, strategies, and tools, necessary to assess the local availability of adequate educational services for children with autism in and around military installations, (2) Identify and mobilize a national network of expertise at centers and land grant institutions capable of generating and reviewing best practices in educational services for children with autism, 3) Create a protocol for making recommendations for the provision of autism services to military dependent children, and (4) Develop a template for a final report on the availability and recommended practices for serving military dependent children with autism.
Project Methods
Methods: Objective 1: Surveys of local educational agencies in and around military installations will be conducted. Start up funds will be used to design the assessment protocols and instruments and begin implementing the first phase of assessment. A plan will be developed to assess the availability of services in these areas containing dense populations of military dependent children. Nearly 500 school districts will be involved in this first phase of assessment. The lessons learned from the first phase will be used to refine the processes and assess the availability of autism services in areas of the country (and world) where there are fewer numbers of military personnel. Availability includes both the existence of the service and factors affecting how accessible the services are to military families and children (i.e. eligibility, waiting lists, transportation, and affordability). The final approach will be approved by CSREES and DOD representatives. Objective 2: Academic and clinical expertise within land‐grant institutions and associated centers will be mobilized to create a comprehensive review of best practices in the treatment and education of children with autism spectrum disorders. This start up project will identify national expertise, mobilize these experts into a cadre of contributors to a best practices catalog. In addition, these professionals will review the "best practice" inventories that are generated from other network members. A preliminary list of best practices will be created as part of this start‐up project. This list will be modified, expanded, and vetted in future efforts. It is important that identified best practices include a range of options that are appropriate for children along all points of the autism spectrum. Objective 3: This start‐up project will develop the necessary processes, protocols, and parameters that will be used to make the final report recommendations. The final recommendations will be derived from the review of availability of services mapped against the best practices in serving children with autism. The recommendations will be guided by a set of processes, protocols, and parameters that will determine how accessible certain services should be (frequency and intensity of service) based upon the specific diagnoses of children (mild to severe, and more specific pervasive developmental disorder). Other critical issues such as the future capacity of current local organizations serving children with autism will be included in the creation of the protocols. Objective 4: The template for the final report (including outline and structure/format for the services review, best practices, and recommendations) will be developed as part of this start‐up project. The structure and format will be vetted by CSREES and DOD prior to the end of this start‐up project. The timeline will include data collection and analysis milestones as well as a review schedule for appropriate input from partnering organizations.