2026 Program - Gatlinburg Conference

October 6

Preconference Sessions

Schedule

1:00-1:30 = Introduction

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1:30-2:30 = Maggie Koerth, “Science Communication”

2:30-3:00 = Break and Icebreaker activities

3:00-4:30 = Careers panel and Breakout tables

4:30-4:45 = Closing Remarks (including dinner opportunities)

7:00 – 10:00 PM – Welcome Reception

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October 7

Time	Health, Services, AI & Life-Course Outcomes 2026	Intervention, Community & Family Supports 2026	Mechanisms, Measurement & Diagnosis 2026
8:00 am	Opening Remarks
8:30 am	Plenary Talk: Nancy Berlinger, IDD, Aging, and AI: Applying Insights from Design Engineering and Disability Bioethics
10:00 am	From Molecules to Parent-Child Dyads: Applying the Biopsychosocial Model of Pain to Children with Developmental Disabilities	Enhancing Community Partnership Support for Individuals with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Using Mixed-Methods and Multimethod Designs	Psychophysiological Measures of Attention in Clinical Populations
11:30 am	From Systems to Survival: How Institutional and Structural Contexts Shape Life-Course Outcomes in Autism and IDD	Advancing Family-Centered Intervention: Exploring Implementation, Cultural Adaptation, and Caregiver Experience	Quantitative Approaches for Characterizing and Predicting Motor Features of FXTAS in Female and Male FMR1 Premutation Carriers
1:00 pm	The Next Generation of Clinical Trials: Challenges and Opportunities for Investigators		Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Luncheon
2:30 pm	The promise of AI for precision phenotyping and clinical trial readiness in Genetic Neurodevelopmental Disorders	Family at the core: How family relationships and social determinants of health impact outcomes in families of children with autism and developmental disabilities	Multi-method insights into neurodevelopmental phenotypes from infancy through adolescence in youth with Down syndrome
4:30 pm	Poster Session 1

October 8

Time	Health, Services, AI & Life-Course Outcomes 2026	Intervention, Community & Family Supports 2026	Mechanisms, Measurement & Diagnosis 2026
8:30 am	Poster Session 2
11:00 am	Plenary Speaker: Frederick Shic
12:00 pm	Updates from NIH
12:30 pm	Lunch Break
1:30 pm	Integrating Artificial Intelligence with Clinical Knowledge to Support Autism Identification, Assessment, and Intervention	Adapting Caregiver Led Interventions Across Contexts: Culturally Responsive Innovations in Parents Taking Action	Measuring autism symptoms in Down Syndrome
3:00 pm	Approaches for evaluating validity and improving data quality in quantitative studies of cognition and neurophysiology in IDD populations	Family, School, and Community Provider Collaboration in Educational and Transition Planning for Students Who Receive Special Education Services	Leveraging Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) Software in Communication Outcomes Measurement with Young Children with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities
5:00 pm	Poster Session 3

October 9

Time	Health, Services, AI & Life-Course Outcomes 2026	Intervention, Community & Family Supports 2026	Mechanisms, Measurement & Diagnosis 2026
8:00 am	Plenary Speaker: Tala Fakhouri
9:30 am	Community-engaged methods to assess and facilitate physical health of people with IDD	Using Experience Sampling Methodology to Explore the Social Experiences of Autistic People	Developing meaningful measures for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities
11:00 am	Psychophysiological Functioning and Developmental Disability: An Examination of Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Functioning in Autistic Adolescents and Dyads with the FMR1 Premutation	Remote Intervention for Children with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities and their Families: Novel Approaches to Increase Accessibility	Neural mechanisms of sensorimotor differences in autism across the lifespan
12:45 pm	Award Presentation and Closing Remarks

Preconference Sessions

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