The Autism Spectrum Differences Institute of New England is a non-profit organization. We provide consultation and training, and collaborate in research partnerships, with schools, families, other nonprofits or public agencies, and institutions of higher learning, and community services.

Our mission statement is: Facilitating inclusive, brain-based, age- and culturally-appropriate accommodations and supports for individuals of all ages with labels reflecting Autism Spectrum Differences in their schools, jobs, families, and communities.

We also have expertise in supported independent typing.

ASDNI/NE strives to further understanding of Movement, Anxiety, Communication, and Sensory differences experienced by people with labels reflecting autism spectrum differences and to partner with individuals who have ASD labels and, where appropriate, their families, schools, employers, communities, and other service providers, consistent with our values.


autism spectrum disabilities (with our innovative MACS approach), positive behavior supports, person- and family-centered planning, and inclusive education and lifestyles.

The Connecticut State Department of Education is the administrative arm of the Connecticut State Board of Education. Through leadership, curriculum, research, planning, evaluation, assessment, data analyses and other assistance, the Department helps to ensure equal opportunity and excellence in education for all Connecticut students. The Department is responsible for distributing funds to the state’s 166 school districts. The Department also operates the Connecticut Technical High School System.

The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), a 501(c)3 organization, is a unique federation of voluntary health organizations dedicated to helping people with rare "orphan" diseases and assisting the organizations that serve them. NORD is committed to the identification, treatment, and cure of rare disorders through programs of education, advocacy, research, and service.

The Simons Simplex Collection is a bold new initiative to search for the causes of autism. Researchers at Yale and twelve other sites in North America will collect DNA samples from families with just one child affected by an Autism Spectrum Disorder. This valuable data will be available to the best scientific minds of the world to search for clues that will lead to important breakthroughs.

Families eligible to participate consist of:
• Only one child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder between the ages of 4 to 17
• One or more siblings age four or older without an Autism Spectrum Disorder
o A small number of families with no siblings, or siblings under the age of four, may be eligible to participate
• Unaffected biological parents who are both willing to participate.

Research Components:
1. Eligible children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder will receive a behavioral assessment. Parents will receive oral feedback, as well as a written research report summarizing results of their child’s evaluation.
2. Families will have an opportunity to have their child undergo a medical evaluation with a geneticist and speak with a genetic counselor about questions they may have.
3. Each family member who donates blood will receive $40.00 in compensation immediately after the blood draw.

The Child Study Center is a department the Yale University School of Medicine. The mission of the Center is to understand children's mental health problems, and prevent or alleviate the symptoms of patients who suffer from them. The mission requires understanding child development and its underpinnings and many contexts and influences in which development unfolds. Over the past several decades, the Center has taken advantage of its unique position to bring together a faculty with extraordinary breadth of research and clinical interests. The faculty includes internationally recognized experts from multiple disciplines, including child psychiatry, pediatrics, psychology, genetics, neurobiology, epidemiology, nursing, education, social work, and social policy. Child psychiatry serves as the primary discipline represented, and the Center plays a key national and international role in psychiatric research, training, and professional activity. The mission of the Center is carried out through six interrelated areas.

The Yale Developmental Disabilities Clinic offers comprehensive, multidisciplinary evaluations for children with social disabilities, usually focusing on the issues of diagnosis and intervention.