Geneva Centre for Autism

S. Wendy Roberts is a Developmental Paediatrician at HollandBloorview Kids Rehabitilitation Hospital and Co Director for the Autism Research Unit at the Hospital for Sick Children. She has been a leader in the development of Autism Services in Ontario, including participation in the GTA Child Health Network developmental implementation committee, as well as in numerous teaching events for pediatricians across the province, nationally, and internationally. She has led the first Canadian site of the Autism Treatment Network (ATN) whose goal is to provide evidence based care and to particularly improve the medical care which is offered to individuals with autism and their families.

Wendy Roberts completed her medical training at the University of Toronto in 1972 and obtained her FRCP in Paediatrics in 1977. Currently, she is a Professor in the Department of Paediatrics, at the University of Toronto. She is adjunct scientist in the Bloorview Research Institute and Project Investigator in the Research Institute at The Hospital for Sick Children. Dr. Roberts regularly provides consultations and workshops, including Telehealth sessions for community paediatricians, family physicians, and colleagues from other disciplines in large and small communities across Canada and internationally. She has received numerous teaching awards including the 2001 Hospital for Sick Children Foundation Claus Wirsig Humanitarian Award, the Colin R. Woolf Award for Teaching Excellence at the University of Toronto in 2004 as well as the June Callwood advocacy for individuals with Developmental Disabilities award in 2009 and, in 2010, the Power award for Paediatric resident teaching.

Dr. Roberts’s research interests in Learning Disabilities, ADHD and Autism have been accompanied by an interest in understanding more about the techniques of effective communication: transfer of information from parent to child, teacher to student, and physician to patient as well as the translation of research into practice. Current areas of active research in the numerous grants on which she is a co investigator and site PI include early identification, genetics, medical issues and intervention trials in Autism.