CRAE Partnership

The Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE) is a partnership between the Institute of Education and Ambitious about Autism supported by the Clothworkers Foundation and Pears Foundation.

CRAE was established in 2009 to improve the research evidence available to support effective intervention for children and young people with autism. Together we work to produce research that will influence health and education policy and practice in the UK and internationally.

What does CRAE's work include?

  • gathering evidence on the effectiveness of the current best practice teaching methods for children with autism
  • carrying out research on barriers to learning and how to remove them
  • investigating how autism education practice can be evaluated more effectively
  • developing specialist training courses for people involved in autism education
  • and devising new programmes for qualified teachers to gain a recognised specialism in autism.

CRAE's aims

  • help people with autism participate more in schools and society
  • promote the translation of research evidence into practice
  • and encourage national and international communication about good evidence-based practice in autism education.

The CRAE team

CRAE is headed by Professor Tony Charman. A Professor in Autism Education, his special area of interest is early social cognitive development in children with autism.

The Senior Lecturer at CRAE is Dr Liz Pellicano. Her research investigates the role of social cognition, cognitive psychology, face perception and visual perception in the way people with autism learn and develop.

The CRAE team at IOE also includes two research associates, a research assistant and a research officer. Their work is supported by PhD students and interns.

Ambitious about Autism brings a combination of practice and research to the CRAE partnership. The staff at TreeHouse School are continually evolving, refining and developing evidence-based teaching methods for individuals with autism. And members of the Ambitious about Autism team regularly produce peer-reviewed reports and present at conferences on best practice methods for teaching children with autism. All of this work makes a vital contribution to the evidence base.

CRAE was established thanks to generous donations from:

You can find out more about CRAE on the IOE website.