Autism Center
About the Center
The Autism Centre Department (ACD) at King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Centre (KFSH&RC) began as the Center for Autism Research (CFAR), which was established through a generous grant from SABIC in 2010, aiming to create a specialized center of autism research. Then, during 2018 Riyad Bank took the helm supporting the Centre as part of its social responsibility providing an equivalent generous grant.
Today, over 10 years later, the center has transformed into a clinical center devoting the efforts to serve Autism as both diagnostic and interventional services. As well as, continuing the efforts toward building professional capacities and harnessing new technologies and adapting more evidence-based tools and kits through research and collaboration.
Scope of Services
The center provides comprehensive evaluation for children suspected to have Autism or at risk of Autism. The diagnostic assessment is conducted by a multidisciplinary team (MDT), aiming to determine if the child meets criteria for a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (DSM V/5). As well as, providing parents with a holistic understanding of their child’s individual profile of developmental strengths and challenges, and recommendations for early interventions programming approaches and goals based on the child’s specific needs and emerging skills.
The multidisciplinary team is composed of various disciplines, who all share an interest, specialized expertise and training, and years of experience working with children with autism spectrum disorders. The disciplines expertise includes:
• Developmental Pediatrics / Pediatric Psychiatry
• Neuropsychology / Psychology
• Speech and language pathology
• Occupational therapy
• Applied Behavioral Analysis
Services overview
• Autism MDT Diagnosis
• Intervention
o Behavioral
o Speech and language pathology
o Occupational therapy
Accreditation
Research and Development
Graduate Certi¬ficate in Applied Behavior Analysis a Bilingual Program in Collaboration with University of Nevada, Reno
Behavior Analysis is an approach that is scientifically proven to comprehend behavior and the contribution of the environment to these behaviors. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a comprehensive program that is based on the principles of behavior analysis. ABA methods are developed to support individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder or other behavioral or developmental disorders in many ways:
• Teach new skills and behaviors
• Maintain desired behaviors
• Reduce and control interfering behaviors
ABA is the most scientifically approved and widely used method in training children with ASD across all age groups in the World. The Autism Center had three previous successful collaboration with university of Nevada Reno (UNR)-US and the first program began 2014; by now the total students who graduated from all of the previous programs are 38. As of 2023 the forth ABA graduate certifi¬cate program with UNR, started during fall for college graduates of Bachelor and master degree.
Human Behavioral Lab
Human Behavior Lab established in January 2020 using cutting edge technologies to study and analyze human behavior deeply using objective measures of biosensors data. The Human Behavior Laboratory can help answer questions about human thoughts and emotions, and give us groundbreaking insights into our health, education and marketing tactics.
The lab can collect biometric data quickly and accurately, including eye tracking, facial expression analysis (reading emotions), neural signals (electroencephalography), galvanic skin response (GSR), and heart and respiration rates. The result is a greater understanding of how context and emotions influence human behavior.