The mission of the Transitions lab is to understand how to promote positive outcomes in adulthood for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.
Much of our current work focuses on the transition to adulthood for youth on the autism spectrum. Our studies include: (a) developing and testing a parent advocacy training to improve service access and post-school outcomes as youth on the autism spectrum transition from school-based to adult services: (b) understanding the implications of employment and other day-to-day experiences for mental health and quality of life; (c) examining unique vulnerabilities of women on the autism spectrum, as well as vulnerabilities common across sex/gender; (d) longitudinal research to understand the predictors and outcomes of employment stability for adults with autism; (e) Community-based participatory research to develop and validate outcome measures for autism services research; and (f) investigating the role of language development during the transition to adulthood for youth with fragile X syndrome.