Autism Child and Family Lab

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Autism Child and Family Lab

We ask questions aimed at improving the lives of autistic children and their families.

17/08/2026

📢 New paper out in Journal of Early Intervention!

This 3-year mixed methods study tested whether RUBI, an evidence-based, parent-mediated intervention for autistic children with disruptive behavior, holds up outside specialized clinic settings.

🏙️ RUBI was delivered by community clinicians across six sites and 53 families, and it worked, but only under certain conditions: protected clinician time, materials that fit the local context, and institutional buy-in. These factors separated the sites that sustained it from those that stopped.

🤝 This project was a collaboration between our lab and the awesome Mor Nahum, whose team created the platform via which we disseminated the intervention and collected data, with significant collaboration from Adam Rose in our School of Public Health and Community Medicine.

👏 Mohamed Tarabeih and Yana Sinai Gavrilov led this paper and project, alongside amazing students and collaborators: Shay Netzer Hellman, Amjed Shoughry, Orly Shimony, Aviva Binet, and Dana Costa.

🙏 None of this happens without the entire lab, community clinicians who took this on, the families who let us learn alongside them, and support from the Joseph Levy Foundation.

Onward and upward!

22/07/2026

New paper, led by the awesome Tobi Graucher, out now in Research in Autism! 🎉

Family accommodation refers to modifications made by families to reduce their children's distress, which, in this case, stems from the child's restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs).

We studied nearly 300 young children referred for suspected autism, divided into those confirmed as autistic, a developmentally delayed group, and another group who received no diagnosis. This is the first study to examine family accommodation of RRBs alongside emotion regulation in both children and parents, and the first to test whether this phenomenon (accommodation of RRBs) extends beyond autism.

The main finding: Accommodation by both mothers and fathers was consistently associated with negative child affect (the tendency toward distress and frustration) across all three groups. Parents' own emotion regulation strategies surprisingly showed no clear link to accommodation, though those analyses were limited by sample size.

Takeaway: Accommodation of RRBs isn't specific to autism. It tracks the child's emotional distress, whatever the diagnosis. Families of young children high in negative affect may benefit from accommodation-focused support early, even before or without a formal diagnosis.

Check out this paper (and you can access all our other published work) here: https://www.autismchildfamily.com/publications

We're proud of you, Tobi! Onward and upward!

12/07/2026

New paper out in Autism Research, from the PARC (Pediatric Autism Research Cohort) team!

Led by Ella Brouwer, working with Beth Kelley at Queen's University, this short report separates how often autistic traits occur from how much they impact the child's daily life, and asks how each relates to family experience.

Across 206 families of young autistic children (ages 2 to 7) in the first year post-diagnosis, the impact of traits was associated with parents' reports of their own experience, while the frequency of traits was associated with how they described family life more broadly.

The takeaway for practice: post-diagnostic family support should be tailored to the child's specific profile, not to a global severity score.

Onward and upward!

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/aur.70303

06/07/2026

We had an awesome time at our annual PhD/postdoc outing!

We got out of the lab to learn about the history of Tel Aviv's Sarona neighborhood, followed by a visit to the offices of the Aviv Foundation - the incredible organization that funds the heart of our lab's clinical research infrastructure. We are honored and humbled to be a small part of the amazing work they do!

29/06/2026

We had a great time at the The Hebrew University Mt. Scopus campus Community Day! 🏛️✨

Our team was proud to showcase our research and share how the work we do connects with and impacts our community. Making science matter is what it's all about!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by, chatted with us, and asked great questions.

22/06/2026

📢 Why do two autistic children with similar profiles often follow very different developmental paths?

Join us in two days for an online talk by lab PI Dr. Judah Koller, who will present a Contextual Transactional Developmental framework for understanding how development unfolds through ongoing interactions between children and their environments over time, and what this means for supporting autistic children and their families. Developed through the work in our lab, this framework will be presented as part of the PARC Speaker Series at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

💻 Online
🗣️ The talk will be in English.

Space is limited. To register, please click the link in the first comment below.

21/06/2026

To do good science, you need good people.

We wrapped up the academic year last week in Judah's home and expressed our gratitude to some awesome people who are finishing their time in the lab.

Special shout-out to Adi Dolev, who entered as a BA four years ago and has had a transformative effect, having designed and coordinated the program for research assistants for the last 3 years, and whose impact has been felt on every aspect of what we do.
,
To Adi, Rotem Lapidot, Haya Jahsan, and all our amazing BAs and RAs who are moving on - thank you for all you've done. We can't wait to see what comes next!

15/06/2026

מחפשים עבודה משמעותית עם משפחות וילדים אוטיסטים?

למעבדה שלנו דרוש/ה עוזר/ת מחקר בהיקף משרה של 50-100% בירושלים, כחלק ממחקר ארצי חדשני.

תחילת עבודה: ספטמבר 1
תנאים טובים למתאימים

העבודה כוללת גיוס משפחות, איסוף וניהול מאגר נתונים, והפעלה של פרוטוקולים מחקריים עם ילדים צעירים.

ניסיון עם ילדים ונכונות ללמידה חשובים – פרטים מלאים בקובץ המצורף ובאתר:
www.autismchildfamily.com/joinus

שליחת מכתב התעניינות, קו"ח + גליון ציונים: [email protected]

Looking for meaningful work with families and young autistic children?

We’re looking for a 50-100% research assistant in Jerusalem to join
a national autism research project.

Start date: September 1

Competitive conditions for qualified candidates

The role includes recruiting families, data collection and database management, and running research protocols with young children.

Experience with children and a willingness to learn are essential.

Full details in the attached flyer and on our website:

www.autismchildfamily.com/joinus

To apply, send a statement of interest, your CV, and transcript to: [email protected]

המרכז הלאומי ע"ש עזריאלי לחקר אוטיזם ונוירו-התפתחות

11/06/2026

We could not be prouder as we congratulate Tanya Nitzan on the official approval of her doctorate! 🎓✨

Tanya's PhD (which has already resulted in 3 awesome publications) is titled, "Characteristics of early autism diagnosis and assessment of an early autism intervention program."

This is also a special milestone for our lab. Tanya is a student at the המרכז הלאומי ע"ש עזריאלי לחקר אוטיזם ונוירו-התפתחות Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, jointly supervised by Ilan Dinstein, Gal Meiri, and our PI, Judah Koller, and Tanya is Judah Koller's first PhD student to graduate!

Tanya, warmest wishes of congratulations, and we have no doubt you will do amazing things as you transition to your next chapter! 🥂 Mazal tov!!

10/06/2026

Huge congratulations to our amazing current and former lab members for their incredible academic achievements this past year! ✨

Big shout-out to טל יעקובי Tal Yacoby, Nur Mannaa, Shahar Govrin, Shira Shtitzer, and Rotem Lapidot for making the Dean’s List!

🏆 Extra special congratulations to Rotem Lapidot for also receiving the prestigious Rector’s Award for Academic Excellence!

We are super proud to have you all as part of our lab family. Onward and upward! 🚀🎉

Address

Seymour Fox School Of Education
Bethany
91905

Website

https://www.autismchildfamily.com/

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