The University of Washington Autism Center is an internationally recognized program on autism. Last year, the Center served more than 400 families and provided 7,696 hours of clinical services to children with autism and their families. The Center boasts one of the nation’s largest teams — more than 35 scientists and investigators — working collaboratively to discover the cause, treatment, and cure for autism. The Center provides professional training for community professionals and pre-and post-doctoral trainees.

The UW Autism Center is Committed to:

• meeting the needs of families throughout the region who are seeking services
• being the national model for service delivery, patient education, support, professional training, and advocacy, and
• serving as a driving force in creating new knowledge, and ultimately a cure,
  through medical research

AUTISM FACTS:

• Autism affects 1 out of every 167 persons.
• Autism is more common than Down syndrome, childhood cancer, deafness
• Parents, advocacy groups, the National Institutes of Health, and scientists have launched a major effort to discover the cause and cure for autism.
• It is believed that with adequate funding for scientific research, a cure or prevention for autism will be achievable.
• Genes play a role in the cause of autism. If a family has one child with autism, their chance of having a second child with autism is 1 in 20, approximately 50–100 times more likely than the general population.
• It is believed that environmental factors, such as toxins, may interact with genetic susceptibility to cause autism.
• Scientific efforts currently are aimed at discovering a biomarker for autism that could identify infants at risk at birth.
• In 2003, with very early intensive behavioral interventions, it is estimated that approximately 25 percent of cases of severe autism could be prevented.
• Early intensive behavioral intervention is extremely costly (about $25,000 per year), and most insurance companies do not cover these services. Families typically bear the financial burden. The Microsoft Corporation partnered with the Autism Center to offer the first insurance benefit for early intensive behavior intervention.

UW AUTISM RESEARCH

• UW autism research is multi-disciplinary, involving geneticists, radiologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, neurobiologists, and speech and language scientists, among others.
• In 2002, the UW Autism Center received a $10.2 million grant from National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to continue UW studies aimed at discovering the genetic and neurobiological causes of autism.
• Autism research at the University of Washington received a major boost in the form of an $8.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. The grant, which runs for five years, nearly doubles the research funding of the UW Autism Center.
• The Center is using the infusion of new funding to expand its research in three areas: the early diagnosis of autism, the impact of early intervention on brain development, and a number of brain imaging studies using state of the art technology.

UW AUTISM CARE

• The Center has a substantial waiting list for services.
• This year the Autism Center provided services free of charge to families who were in need of financial assistance.
• The Autism Center provides a range of clinical services including diagnostic assessments, developmental pediatric and child psychiatry consultation, educational/neuropsychological assessments, early intensive behavior therapy, individual cognitive-behavioral therapy, occupational therapy, school consultation, social skills groups, and speech-language therapy.

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

• The Autism Center offers a summer course that provides foundational training in intervention methods for children with autism to 100 community professionals and parents.
• The Autism Center provides pre- and post-doctoral clinical psychology training, and Pediatric resident fellowship training.
• During the past year, the Autism Center responded to more than 7,000 telephone calls from parents, professionals, and others in the community requesting general information on autism, referrals, and services provided by the Autism Center.