On April 3, the University of Miami and NSU’s Center for Autism and Related Disabilities (C.A.R.D) held the 2021 Issues in Autism Conference. The conference, titled “Genes, Brains and More: A C.A.R.D. Perspective on Autism Research and Community Engagement,” featured autism researchers and experts in genetics, neuroscience, objective measurements of autism, virtual and augmented reality, clinic and classroom-based interventions and more.
The conference is an annual event that started 21 years ago and typically takes place on the first Saturday of April. In the past, there have been a range of speakers from the local and international stages.
While this is the second year the conference occurred virtually due to the pandemic, it still featured a wide array of speakers. The keynote speaker was Micheal Alessandri, executive director of the UM-NSU Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, along with seven other speakers, who covered topics from evidence-based practices in coaching parents to mixed Reality in Applied Behavior Analysis. At the end of the conference, there was a panel Q&A on Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Luis Grana, the NSU satellite director of the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, explained, “This year’s conference, we are highlighting some staff that are associated with C.A.R.D. at the University of Miami and some other folks at the University of Miami that are professors that are not necessarily a part of C.A.R.D. We’ll have several different speakers on that day that will cover things related to research in the field of autism, clinic and classroom strategies that are used, applied behavior analysis interventions and our Autism Friendly initiative.”
Grana further explained, “It’s a variety of different components that are related to the autism community that the folks here in Broward can get to know and get familiarized with some of the new research coming out. It’s a little bit of everything, and our autism community in Broward is very eclectic in many ways. It’s a nice variety of things related to the field of autism that the community can get behind.”
For students who missed the conference, but still want to get involved with C.A.R.D. and the autism community, there are a plethora of upcoming events hosted by C.A.R.D. ranging from support groups to social opportunities available to view on C.A.R.D.’s website. In addition, a variety of past webinars can be accessed via the link.
