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 participation in home and community activities. Our main outcome focuses on participation frequency (how often) and involvement (how immersed the child is in the activity) and the type and number of activities to which parents would like to see change

Summit School, in partnership with ÉducaTED, has launched a drum circle program led by the music teacher during music class. This musical training investigates how music perception impacts social, cognitive, and behavioral functioning of children and adolescents with various developmental disorders. For more information on the BAND Research Group, please visit

https://www.mcgill.ca/researchband/

Bilingualism has been shown to enhance cognitive abilities, namely executive function (EF), among typically developing children. EF is the broad term for the set of cognitive skills required for planning, reaching a goal, learning, and remembering new information, solving new problems, etc. However, there is little research studying the effects of bilingualism on EF among the population of children with neurodevelopmental conditions (NDCs). Consequently, the current research study aims to investigate this relationship and promote bilingualism among the community of children with NDCs and their families.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often exhibit atypical sensory (e.g., superior visual search and noise detection) cognitive patterns (e.g., difficulty with solving new problems) as well as restricted repetitive behaviors (RRBs, e.g., obsession with numbers, frequent gestures, etc). However, the relationships between these variables are largely unknown. This research study will focus on exploring the interaction between the sensory patterns and cognitive flexibility that underlie RRBs, as well as to determine their joint accuracy in predicting the severity and pattern of RRBs.

This research project aims to understand the different attentional styles children and adolescents with ASD use to attend to social and non-social stimuli in their environment. The researchers plan on comparing the processing of social versus non-social stimuli, while considering the level of cognitive functioning and parent reports on social competence. The findings of this research will assist in understanding the link between attention and social development among the population of ASD youth.

The aim of this project is to evaluate the effects of a novel reading comprehension intervention program for preschoolers with ASD who present with signs of hyperlexia (early ability to read letters and words). We hypothesize that children with ASD will show significant improvement in their reading comprehension and oral comprehension skills following the intervention.