APPIC Program Code: 141311
One intern will be selected for this concentration. The Autism intern must have some background experiences or special interest in autism.
Rotations
- Duke Center for Autism & Brain Development (primary rotation)
- Pediatric Primary Care Clinic (1 day)
- Outpatient Pediatric Neuropsychology Clinic (1 day)
Rotation Descriptions
The Duke Center for Autism & Brain Development provides a wide range of clinical services for children, adolescents and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The center’s multidisciplinary team is comprised of licensed psychologists, board-certified child psychiatrists, licensed clinical social workers, behavior analysts and a pediatrician.
Center faculty and staff strive to provide patient-centered, coordinated team-based care and collaborate closely with experts from a wide range of medical subspecialties, including:
- Pediatric neurologists
- Pediatric primary care physicians
- Speech-language pathologists
- Medical geneticists
- Gastroenterologists
- Developmental pediatricians
These interdisciplinary collaborations foster a comprehensive model of care that is designed to address the complex medical and behavioral health needs of individuals and families who seek services through the center.
Clinical Experiences & Didactics
The autism rotation offers numerous clinical experiences, including evidence-based evaluation and treatment of ASD and other neurodevelopmental disorders. In the evaluation component of the rotation, interns gain first-hand experiences administering, scoring and interpreting diagnostic and assessment tools, preparing psychological reports and collaborating with the clinical team.
In the intervention component, interns may be involved in the provision of individual, family and group therapy services. Opportunities to participate in infant-toddler diagnostic evaluations are available. In addition, interns are introduced to early behavioral intervention, based on the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM). The ESDM is a comprehensive behavioral early intervention approach for children with autism aged 12 to 48 months that has been validated in a randomized clinical trial.
Finally, interns participate in case consultations and are encouraged to pursue opportunities to take part in school-based consultations, community presentations and other training experiences. Supervision is provided in individual and group formats. Interns also gain supervisory experience by providing peer supervision to graduate student trainees.
In addition to the clinical training experiences, the rotation involves active participation in a weekly didactic seminar. The didactic series provides exposure to ongoing clinical research that is focused on innovative evaluation and treatment approaches.
Supervisors
In the Outpatient Pediatric Neuropsychology Clinic, interns assess patients’ neuropsychological and psychological changes secondary to disease processes and/or treatment regimen. The rotation may include evaluation of patients from the following clinics:
- Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Program
- Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
- Pediatric Neuro-Oncology
- Pediatric Neurology and Neurosurgery (Epilepsy Monitoring Unit; Autoimmune Brain Disease Clinic)
- Pediatric Genetics
- Undiagnosed Disease Network Program
Supervisors
In the Pediatric Primary Care rotation, the Autism intern will work closely with Gary Maslow, MD, MPH, a triple boarded physician in pediatrics and adult and child psychiatry, to help address a range of needs.
This fast-paced environment includes opportunities to complete brief diagnostic assessments and provide targeted interventions for a variety of conditions including autism, ADHD, intellectual disabilities, anxiety, depression, and other psychiatric and genetic syndromes.
The intern will learn a great deal about psychopharmacological approaches to symptom management, evaluating improvement, resource management, and multidisciplinary consultation within the context of pediatric primary care. The intern will also participate in rounds with DukeWell care managers, psychiatry, and psychology, and have the opportunity to engage in treatment planning, triage management, review of school-based evaluations and services, and complex psychiatric cases.
Supervisor: Gary Maslow, MD, MPH
On Fridays, children coming to Duke Children’s Primary Care for their well visit might see a clinical psychology doctoral intern from the Duke Center for Autism and Brain Development on rotation with their pediatrician.