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Developmental Disabilities and Mental Health Lab Faculty of Health
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Karen Black

Karen Black
Karen Black

Education

  • Doctor of Philosophy, York University (in progress)
  • Master of Arts, York University
  • Bachelor of Science, University of Toronto
  • Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of British Columbia

Research Interests

My graduate work has broadly focused on intervention and predictors of change for children and families with and without neurodevelopmental conditions. My dissertation research examines the effect of child, parent and environmental factors on change in coping skills for autistic children who receive CBT; for my Master’s  thesis, I examined predictors of autistic children’s enjoyment of mindfulness and computer-based activities across CBT-based treatment sessions. Other work includes predictors of trauma-informed care adoption for child welfare workers serving juveniles in residential treatment settings, and of coding knowledge change for children in low-income communities, following participation in classroom-delivered digital game pedagogy.

Black, K., Collin-Vézina, D., Brend, D., & Romano, E. (2022). Trauma-informed attitudes in residential treatment settings: Staff, child and youth factors predicting adoption, maintenance and change over time. Child Abuse & Neglect, 1053561. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105361

Tajik-Parvinchi, D. J., Black, K. R., Roudbarani, F., Weiss, J. A., King, G. (2022). Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in typical and atypical brain development: Challenges and suggestions. In Bonnie Halpern-Felsher (Editor-in-Chief). Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Health, Section on Brain Development. Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA

Collin-Vézina, D., Brend, D., Black, K., Beeman, I., & Brown, S. (2020). Impacts of child welfare worker and clientele characteristics on attitudes toward trauma informed-care. Developmental Child Welfare, 2(4), 244–261. https://doi.org/10.1177/2516103220963139

Stevenson, R. A., Philipp-Muller, A., Hazlett, N., Wang, Z. Y., Luk, J., Lee, J., Black K., Yeung L., Shafai F., Segers M., Barense M., & Ferber, S. (2018). Conjunctive visual processing appears abnormal in autism. Frontiers in Psychology. 9, 2668.

Weiss, J., Thomson, K., Burnham Riosa, P., Albaum, C., Chan, V., Maughan, A., Tablon, P. & Black, K. (2018). A randomized waitlist controlled trial of cognitive behavior therapy to improve emotion regulation in children with autism. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 59(11), 1180-1191.

Jenson, J., Black, K., & de Castell, S. (2018). Digital Game-Design: Effects of Single Sex Groups on Student Success. Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Games Based Learning (ECGBL), 258-265.

Black, K., Stevenson, R., Ncube, B., Segers, M., Sun, S., Bebko, J., Philipp-Muller, A., Barense, M. & Ferber, S. (2017). Linking anxiety with insistence on sameness in autistic children: The role of sensory hypersensitivity. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 47(8), 2459-2470.

Jenson, J., Black, K., & de Castell, S. (2018). Designing, Tinkering and Making: Implementing Digital Games in Classroom Contexts. Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Games Based Learning (ECGBL), 294-300.

Stevenson, R., Segers, M., Ncube, B., Black, K., Bebko, J., Ferber, S. & Barense, M. (2017). The cascading influence of low-level multisensory processing on speech perception in autism. Autism, 1362361317704413.

Black, K., Roundbarani, F., Martini, J., Weiss, J. (August, 2018). Mindful activities during CBT for children with ASD: Associations between self-report and EDA. Symposium presentation in "Biomarkers in Clinical Contexts" at the American Psychological Association (APA) Convention, Division 33, San Francisco, CA.

Weiss, J., Thomson, K., Burnham Riosa, P., Albaum, C., Chan, V., Maughan, A., Tablon, P. & Black, K. (April, 2018) Cognitive behavior therapy to improve emotion regulation and reduce psychopathology in children with autism: Secret Agent Society Operation Regulation. Symposium presentation at the 51st Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, San Diego, CA.

Black, K., Weiss, J.A. (August, 2017). Child characteristics and therapeutic correlates of mindfulness practice in children with autism.  Paper Presentation at the American Psychological Association (APA) Convention, Division 33, Washington, DC.

Jenson, J., & Black, K. (July 2017). Gender and Game Making: Attitudes, Competencies and Computational Thinking. Paper Presentation at the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA) Conference, Melbourne, Australia.

Black, K. & Jenson, J. (June 2017). “I Don’t Even Play Games, How Am I Going To Make Them?”: Making Digital Games to Support Computational Thinking. Paper Presentation at the Canadian Game Studies Association (CGSA) Conference, Toronto, ON.

Tajik-Parvinchi, D., Black, K., Weiss, J.A. (May, 2019). Pre-scan preparations in fMRI research for children with autism: a scoping review. Poster presentation at the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) Annual Meeting, Montreal, QC.

Black, K., Tajik-Parvinchi, D., Weiss, J.A. (April, 2019). Pre-scan preparations in fMRI research for children with autism: a scoping review. Poster presentation at The Ontario Association on Developmental Disabilities Conference – Research Special Interest Group, Niagara Falls, ON.

Roudbarani, F., Black, K., & Weiss, J.A. (October, 2018). Parent predictors of therapeutic mindfulness experiences for children with autism. Canadian Mental Health Association National Conference (Mental Health For All), Montreal, QC.

Roudbarani, F., Black, K., & Weiss, J.A. (August, 2018). Parent factors associated with mindfulness activity ratings for children with autism. The American Psychological Association (APA) Convention, San Francisco, CA.

Weiss, J., Thomson, K., Burnham Riosa, P., Albaum, C., Chan, V., Maughan, A., Tablon, P. & Black, K. (May, 2018). A randomized waitlist controlled trial of cognitive behavior therapy to improve emotion regulation in children with autism. Poster presentation at the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) Annual Meeting, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Black, K. & Jenson, J. (April, 2018). Making, computer games and computational knowledge: The role of gender in learning. Poster presentation at the APA: Technology, Mind and Society Conference, Washington, DC.

Black, K., Martini, J., Tablon, P., Weiss, J.A. (April, 2017). The helpfulness of mindfulness practice for children with autism. The Ontario Association on Developmental Disabilities Conference – Research Special Interest Group, Niagara Falls, ON.

Funding

  • 2021 Sammy Graduate Award in Autism Research
  • 2020 York University Psychology Clinic Award in Clinical-Developmental Psychology
  • 2019 - 2022 CIHR Frederick Banting Best Doctoral Award
  • 2019 - 2022 Dr. Eric Jackman La Marsh Student Award
  • 2018 Ontario Graduate Scholarship
  • 2017 Sammy Graduate Award in Autism Research
  • 2017 The Autism Scholars Award (Council of Ontario Universities)
  • 2017 The La Marsh Centre for Child and Youth Research - Graduate Student Research Award
  • 2016 The La Marsh Centre for Child and Youth Research - Graduate Student Research Award
  • 2016 Joseph Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship - Masters

Contact

Email: krblack@yorku.ca
Twitter: TBA