The research staff carry out all of the research activities at the center. This includes recruiting families to a variety of ongoing studies, collecting a wide range of data from both children and parents, and organizing the data in a state-of-the-art database while ensuring patient confidentiality. The research staff are integrated in the daily clinical activities of the Preschool Psychiatry Unit and Child Development Institute in Soroka Medical Center.

This enables them to meet families during their initial autism diagnosis meetings and later annual follow ups, thereby facilitating family recruitment and data collection. A special emphasis is made to collect the vast majority of research data (e.g., parent questionnaires, saliva samples, eye tracking) during or right after the clinical visits. In addition, all children who are suspected of having autism, participate in an ADOS test that is administered by our speech therapists in the center's facilities. 

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