Autism Fellowship Training and Experience

Fellows will be provided a range of clinical and didactic opportunities to develop advanced competencies in the specialty area of autism and to prepare for independent practice as scientist-practitioners.  Training experiences will include extensive experience and supervision in early intensive behavioral intervention, behavioral consultation, cognitive behavioral treatment, family support, and parent training. Within these services, fellows will have opportunities to gain skills in the areas of language and social development, self-help development (such as toilet training and feeding issues), as well as behavior management.  Providing this care directly to children, their parents, or their educators allows for a well-rounded clinical experience. In addition, the fellows are exposed to opportunities to teach and supervise others, provide community education, participate in advocacy activities, and conduct research.

Opportunities for experiences related to diagnosis, psychological assessment, trainee supervision, and research are available as well.  The CASD works in conjunction with the Child Development Center, which conducts more that 1000 diagnostic and psychological evaluations per year for children on the spectrum, and medical management services by developmental pediatricians and neurologists.  In addition, we work in conjunction with Ohio State University’s UCEDD program, the Nisonger Center, which supports a great deal of training and research activity in developmental disabilities.

This new training opportunity is linked with the well-established Nationwide Children’s Hospital Psychology Post-Doctoral training programs in Pediatric Psychology and in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, which are offered under the auspices of the Section of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics and the Division of Psychology in the Department of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University. 

Supervision and training is conducted by a multi-disciplinary team of professionals devoted to the care of individuals with autism, which allows for exposure to a breadth of perspectives and areas of expertise.  Training is provided through structured didactic seminars, group and individual supervision, and continuing education opportunities.  Fellows may attend seminars in the Psychology Department, educational programs offered through Children’s Hospital, continuing education seminars with others specializing in IND, and a research seminar at the Nisonger Center on the OSU main campus.

Opportunities to supervise other trainees and to participate in, or develop, a research project are also included as training objectives. Current clinical and research interests are focused on behavioral interventions, parent training, community dissemination of best practices, Asperger’s interventions, CBT methods with clients with ASD, language development, academic skills, social skills development, peer relationships, sibling support, and feeding problems.

Coordination with Existing NCH Psychology Post-doctoral Program:
Currently Nationwide Children’s Hospital has 8 Post-doctoral psychology training positions, within 3 tracks: Pediatric Psychology (3 trainees), Neuropsychology (2 trainees), and Intellectual and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (IND):  (3 trainees).  All are based on the same philosophical underpinnings, and follow very similar guidelines. The Trueman Fellowship will be most closely aligned with the IND track, being at the same location and sharing many seminar and didactic trainings.