Presenter Bio:  Dr. Samuel L. Odom, Principal Investigator, is Director of Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina and Professor in the School of Education. He is the author or co-author of many refereed journal articles and editor or co-editor of five published and two in press books on early childhood intervention and developmental disabilities. He was previously a member of the National Academy of Science Committee on Educating Children with Autism, which published a report on effective educational programs for young children with ASD (NRC, 2001). He also was a member of the committee that developed the 10 Year Roadmap for Autism Research coordinated by the National Institute on Mental Health and the Interagency Autism Research Committee. Currently his is working with the National Standards Project, which will identify evidence-based practices for children and youth with autism spectrum disorder, and the state of California, which will use this information to identify practices that can be used by teachers and service providers. His recent articles with his doctoral students have addressed the efficacy of a variety of focused intervention approaches (e.g., peer-mediated interventions, sibling-mediated interventions, parent-child intervention to promote joint attention, independent work systems approach to promote learning) for children with ASD. He is currently also the Principal Investigator of a multi-site randomized control study of an intervention to promote preschool readiness. In 2007, Dr. Odom received the Outstanding Research Award from the Council for Exceptional Children.

Description: It is critical for parents and professionals serving someone with ASD to utilize practices determined to be effective through research. This webcast will provide a comprehensive description of evidence-based practices for individuals with ASD. Dr. Odom will provide a definition and describe how a practice is determined to be evidence-based. A review of the current literature in ASD will be provided and those strategies currently identified as evidence-based will be discussed. Further, Dr. Odom will talk about components of a quality program for students with ASD and outline contextual features that represent best practice. A focus will be placed on the findings of the National Autism Professional Development Center in ASD and the National Standards Project. A variety of resources on evidence-based practices will be shared.