Nadler Lab
About the Team
Broadly focused on autism and developmental disabilities, the Nadler lab includes active collaborations with numerous Children’s Mercy (CM) and external investigators as well as current/previous CM trainees. Many ongoing analyses focused on health and behavioral outcomes leverage the ongoing Study to Explore Early Development (SEED), one of the largest longitudinal and multi-site investigations of autism and developmental disabilities. Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, SEED studies in progress include investigations of injury risk in preschoolers with autism, racial/ethnic disparities in clinician-reported validity of autism diagnostic evaluations, and differential barriers to COVID mitigation for youth with autism and other developmental disabilities.
Other work from the lab is supported by the Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics Research Network (DBPNet), including a mixed methods study of suicide screening practices for youth on the autism spectrum in hospital settings that supported by a Maternal Child Health Bureau supplement award. Dr. Nadler is also the co-chair for DBPNet’s Supporting Access for Everyone (SAFE) Initiative, an interprofessional and stakeholder-driven effort to establish best practices for supporting youth with neurodevelopmental disabilities in medical settings.
Another major focus for the lab is the study of community-implemented telehealth caregiver coaching for challenging behaviors in youth with developmental disabilities (Co-PI: Meredith Dreyer Gillette, PhD). Areas of investigation include caregiver engagement, child behavioral and health outcomes, and parent mental outcomes, as well as comparisons of individual vs. group telehealth service delivery.
Other active areas of research include health and mental health services access for youth and adults with developmental disabilities, the prevention of physical restraint use in hospital settings for youth, staff safety in the inpatient hospital environment, implementation disparities in suicide screening for youth with developmental disabilities, health and behavioral profiles of individuals with co-occurring autism and Down Syndrome, and precision medicine outcomes and access for youth with developmental disabilities.
Leader
Cy Nadler, PhD is the Josh Barnds and Stella Carlson Endowed Professor for Autism, as well as an Associate Professor of Pediatrics for the UMKC School of Medicine. He completed his doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Idaho State University, followed by an internship at the Munroe-Meyer Institute/University of Nebraska Medical Center and a fellowship at Children’s Mercy. He currently serves as the Site PI for the combined Children’s Mercy/University of Kansas Medical Center membership in the Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics Research Network (DBPNet), as well as Co-PI for Missouri’s administration of the CDC Study to Explore Early Development. Dr. Nadler routinely serves as a research mentor for psychology and medical trainees, and supports numerous other regional and national research collaborations. Dr. Nadler also directs the Children’s Mercy Autism Clinic.
- Research Areas
- Labs and Research Teams
- ACCESS Behavioral Health Lab
- Baby Health and Behavior Lab
- Baby Lab
- Bactrim Lung Failure Team
- Behavioral Pain Innovations Lab
- Center for Children’s Healthy Lifestyles & Nutrition
- Community Engaged Research Team
- Developmental and Behavioral Health Research Group
- Fridley Lab
- Laboratory of Immunogenomics
- Milkovich Lab
- Nadler Lab
- Pediatric Brain Cancer Research Team/Yadav Lab
- Ramsey Lab
- Sullivant Lab
- Varberg Lab
- Younger Lab
Josh Barnds & Stella Carlson Endowed Professorship for Autism; Section Chief, Autism Psychology; Director, Autism Services; Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine