Pathways News

Our Award Winning Video

The Pathways in ASD whiteboard video won 1st prize in the IHDCYH Talks competition! Our thanks to Tivoli Films!

Pathways Collaboration with NIH and UCSF Department of Psychiatry

A collaboration between the Pathways in ASD study and the U.S. NIH and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, was launched on January 16, 2018. These institutions will study an adaptive assessment tool that can capture change over in social communication skills in children with ASD

2018 IMFAR Meeting

Pathways investigators have submitted 11 abstracts for presentation at the 2018 IMFAR Meeting.

McMaster to collaborate with the US National Institutes of Health

Using data from the Pathways in ASD Study, together with those from 5 sites in the US, a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded collaboration will produce and test a new measure of social communication skills in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. The new measure will be a computer-based parent report on child abilities, rather than impairments, in social communication. The families of children entering the McMaster Children's Hospital's Pediatric Autism Research Collaborative (PARC) will be invited to enter this study, too.

Dr. Peter Szatmari's new paper, Risk and Resilience in ASD, has been published.

Dr. Peter Szatmari, lead investigator for the Pathways in ASD study, has recently published a new paper on risk and resilience in ASD. Below is the abstract from that publication:

The objective of this review is to provide a narrative summary of risk and resiliency in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) over the lifespan. In recent years, much has been learned about risk factors for ASD which include both genetic and environmental mechanisms. Resiliency in ASD is much less studied but examples can be gleaned by exploring studies that allow for heterogeneity in causation and outcome. Possible examples come from the literature on sex difference, infant siblings, and natural history. Exciting translational opportunities can be achieved through a greater focus on understanding protective factors and resiliency in ASD than the field's almost exclusive focus on risk factors and the ability to predict poor outcomes. Although the exact nature of processes that protect in ASD are not yet known, putting a resiliency lens on research and clinical practice may prove illuminating.

You may access and read the full publication here:

Szatmari, P. (2017), Risk and resilience in autism spectrum disorder: a missed translational opportunity?. Dev Med Child Neurol. doi:10.1111/dmcn.13588