Communication is a fundamental human need, yet many children on the autism spectrum face significant challenges in expressing themselves. Among them, minimally speaking children often remain unheard, their voices lost in the complexity of available communication tools and limited support systems. Dr. Angela MacDonald-Prégent helped alter this reality, in part, through her research partnership with SCERT (Summit Centre for Education, Research, and Training) and the Psychology

Dr. Francesca Happé, a renowned expert in the field of autism research, has made significant contributions to our understanding of autism...

The purpose of this study is to describe the participation patterns of school-aged children with ASD, ages 6 to 12, and to ascertain the factors that affect these patterns. Specifically, we aim to estimate the extent to which factors related to the child (i.e., complexity of child’s condition), the family (i.e., socio-economic status, mothers’ actual participation), and environmental factors (presence of barriers and supports), can explain levels of children’s participati

The Summit Centre for Education, Research, and Training (SCERT) is a research facility located at Summit School that is affiliated with McGill University's Department of Education and Counselling Psychology. Since 2016, SCERT's mission has been to improve the educational services for students with neurodevelopmental conditions (NDCs) aged 5-21 and to conduct and support research that informs best practices for teachers and professional support staff working with youth diagnos

After school on Monday, March 21st of 2022, Summit School welcomed Dr. Reut Gruber who provided the staff with a wonderful in-service. Dr. Gruber is a clinical child psychologist and pediatric sleep expert affiliated with McGill University and the Douglas Research Institute. She directs the Attention, Behaviour and Sleep Laboratory where her research focuses on the role sleep plays on children’s academic performance, mental health, and ADHD. In collaboration with SCERT, a f

At Summit, innovation is happening now. Here's a little more about our McGill-affiliated, nationally unique, in-house Summit Centre for...

The goal of the project is to follow mothers of adolescents with autism spectrum disorder across their child’s transition to adulthood to assess changes in services, stress, physical health and emotional well-being. Principal Investigator (PI): Erin Barker, PhD Institution & Department: Concordia University – Department of Psychology Year(s) collaborated with SCERT on project: 2016 - 2017 Results of Research Project: Published Paper: The Impact of Formal and Informal Supp

The recent evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to unique changes in the home environment: for example, difficulty balancing work, child care, and self-care while managing your own and your child’s worries. While these changes have the potential to increase stress in the familial environment, especially among parents and families with special needs children, they also provide the unique opportunity to develop stronger family climate and relationships. Adaptations to the

The research will set out to further the knowledge on whether NeuroTracker can be used in a classroom setting to improve attention. Furthermore, as a secondary objective, the proposed research will set out to explore whether the improvement in attention can also translate to an improvement in academics. Principal Investigator (PI): Domenico Tullo Institution & Department: McGill University – Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology Supervisor: Dr. Armando Berton