You can make a difference

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You can make a difference!

ASD-CARC (Autism Spectrum Disorders - Canadian/American Research

Consortium) is a multidisciplinary team of over 60 researchers,

clinicians and parents, located throughout North America, which is

currently undertaking one of the largest Canadian ASD research

projects ever.

If you have a family member with ASD, please consider joining our

research program. You do not need to live in Canada to participate.

Participating is easy:

· You can contribute to many of our projects simply filling

out our on-line questionnaires.

· If you are expecting a new baby or have an infant under one

year of age, you may participate in our prospective study which will

closely track your infant's development

· If you have two or more individuals with ASD in your family

(siblings, cousins, aunt/uncle, etc.), you could be a candidate for

our genetics of ASD study, which is trying to determine the genetic

risk factors for ASDs.

To register, or for more information visit our website at

www.autismresearch.ca, email autism@... or call 1-866-

ASD-CARC (voice mail only).

www.autismresearch.ca

Below is a quote from Jeanette Holden, Program Director of the ASD-

CARC. Please consider visiting the website and registering your

family for this important research.

" Our hope is to recruit 10,000 families to participate in our

research – most of these families will participate by completing

questionnaires and by providing us with a small sample (blood,

saliva or cheek swab) for genetic studies. Other families will be

invited to participate in more detailed assessments – various

interviews, diagnostic assessments and other studies relating to

processing information, brain imaging, dysmorphology, etc..

Why do we need 10,000 families for our study?

The reason is that we believe autism spectrum disorders are actually

a group of disorders – there may be 10 or more different types of

ASDs – all sharing some behaviors and other family characteristics.

In order to identify both genetic and environmental factors that

contribute to these conditions, we need to divide families

into " subgroups " that are more " homogeneous " – i.e. very similar or

identical to one another. Some subgroups may be more common than

others and, for this reason, all families are important. "

www.autismresearch.ca