Better understanding the way children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and autism cope in social settings is the focus of a new research partnership between The Centre for Child Development. and Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU).
“FASD has typically been an underserved population for many reasons, including the stigma that still exists around it,” says Registered Psychologist Dr. Brian Katz, director of Psychology and Family Services at The Centre for Child Development. “We certainly hope to bring awareness to those people and families living with FASD and provide some research that hasn’t been done before.”
FASD and autism are both brain-based disorders, and people with these disorders may have difficulties with social interactions. Dr. Daniel Bernstein, the principal investigator and a psychology instructor who heads the Lifespan Cognition Lab at KPU, says children with autism are known to have problems understanding someone else’s perspective in social situations. “We want to know if children with FASD have a similar kind of problem taking perspective or if they do better,” he adds.
“While there is a lot known about autism, there isn’t much known about FASD and how it impacts children’s abilities to socially relate to other people,” says Michelle Hunsche, a KPU graduate who is the project coordinator.
This project is funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Engage Grant and supported by the Canada Research Chairs Program.