FROST Lab

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Mission

The FROST Lab investigates how and why early autism interventions work and translates that knowledge into family-centered approaches that can be delivered widely in community service systems. Through intervention science, implementation research, and collaboration with families, clinicians, and educators, we aim to improve access to high-quality support and improved outcomes for children and their families.

Primary Investigator: Kyle Frost, PhD

Dr. Frost is a clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and UMass Memorial Medical Center in the Department of Pediatrics & Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. She completed her PhD in Psychology at Michigan State University and completed her predoctoral clinical psychology residency at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Her research examines the core features of effective interventions for early social communication delays, the mechanistic processes through which they affect change, and how evidence-based practices can be implemented in community systems of care.

You can contact the lab by emailing: FROSTlab@umassmed.edu

Current Research Studies

Optimizing Real-world Behavioral Interventions for Translation in Autism: Supporting children and the caregivers in their ORBIT

Autism is common, yet most families lack access to best-practice early intervention that is naturalistic, naturalistic, tailored for early child development, and centers parents and caregivers as key partners in supporting children. The goal of the ORBIT Study, funded by the NIH (1K23MH145975), is to better understand which social communication intervention strategies are most helpful to teach caregivers in the context of children’s ongoing ABA services, using state-of-the-art research methods and close collaboration with community partners and stakeholders. Our partner agency in this work is Behavioral Concepts (BCI), a Massachusetts-based agency that is part of LEARN Behavioral, a collective group of ABA providers serving children with autism and their families nationally.

The long-term goal of this program of research is to learn how to improve access to quality family-centered care for young autistic children and their families.

This study is approved by the UMass Chan Institutional Review Board (STUDY00003233).

We are currently seeking individuals to serve on a community advisory board (CAB)!

To express interest in serving on the CAB, please click this link https://redcap.link/orbit-CAB or scan the QR Code below.

What is a community advisory board and why do you have one? Members of the community with a variety of lived experiences have expertise that can improve how we do research. We are hoping to collaborate with community members across all years of the grant. The CAB will collaborate with our research team to refine research materials and recruitment approaches, turn input from focus groups into actionable improvements to the research design, interpret outcomes, and decide how information should be shared with the public.

Potential CAB members should be willing to:

  • Meet ~4 times per year over the next few years. We will work together to decide if meetings will be remote, hybrid, in-person, or a mix.
  • Share your ideas, perspectives, and relevant experiences related to the research, either live during meetings, or between meetings. We will accommodate different communication styles and approaches to sharing.
  • You will be compensated for your time.

If you have questions, please contact us at FROSTlab@umassmed.edu.