The Autism Child and Family Lab in the Seymour Fox School of Education at the Hebrew University investigates how individual and contextual factors shape developmental outcomes in young autistic children. Our work is grounded in transactional models of development, with a focus on family accommodation of restricted and repetitive behaviors, caregiver-child interaction, and emotion regulation.
As part of the Azrieli National Centre for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research, we operate a diagnostic clinic that serves families from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds in the community. Our lab also leads the Israeli site of the international Pediatric Autism Research Cohort (PARC) Study, a multi-site initiative tracking developmental and adaptive trajectories over time.
We are a diverse team, both ethnically and neurologically, committed to collaborative, community-engaged research with real-world impact. Our goal is to generate knowledge that translates into improved quality of life for autistic children and the people who care for them.
People
Judah Koller
Dr. Judah Koller is an assistant professor in the Seymour Fox School of Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he heads the Autism Child and Family Lab and serves as co-chair of the graduate program in Clinical Child and School Psychology. He is Director of the Jerusalem region of the Azrieli National Centre for Autism and Neurodevelopment Research and serves on national committees shaping autism diagnostic standards in Israel.
Trained as a clinical child and school psychologist with specialization in early development, infant and community mental health, and autism, he completed his doctorate at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology at Yeshiva University and his postdoctoral training at the Yale Child Study Center. His research examines developmental and contextual influences on the functioning of autistic children, with particular emphasis on transactional dynamics within the family.
His work is/has been supported by national and international funders, including the Azrieli Foundation, the Israeli Ministry of Education, the Aviv Foundation, and the Joseph Levy Foundation. He is committed to research that bridges science, clinical practice, and policy to improve support for autistic children and their families. When procrastinating academic responsibilities, he sometimes blogs here.
Ongoing Research
At the heart of our lab is a no-cost diagnostic clinic, providing an essential service to the community and serving as the basis for much of our research.
In this context, children receive fully recognized, gold-standard developmental and diagnostic evaluations. The assessment incorporates both standardized and experimental measures, allowing us to examine specific child, parent, and systemic variables, which interact with development and may serve as ports of entry into supporting autistic children and their families. We conduct these evaluations in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, and English.
More information is here.
Selected Recent Publications
Rozenblat, S., Shimshoni, Y., Lebowitz, E., Perez, M., & Koller, J. (2025). A pilot trial of SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions) in autism. Child Psychiatry & Human Development
Rozenblat, S., Nitzan, T., Matz Vaisman, T., Shusel, R., Rum, Y., Ashtamker, M., Golan, O., Dinstein, I., & Koller, J. (2024). Short Communication: Autistic Children in the Context of War: Preliminary Findings. Stress and Health
David Cohen, T., Koller, J., Duku, E., Kata, A., Anderson, C., Bennett, T., Cauwenbergs, A., Dekker, K., Di Rezze, B., Drmic, I., Eerkes, J., Gentles, S. J., Georgiades, K., Hoult, L., Kraus De Camargo, O., Mahoney, W., Mesterman, R., Ng, O., Robertson, S., Roncadin, C., Rosenbaum, P., and Georgiades, S. (2024). Brief Report: Pilot findings from the PARC Study: The interaction between autism symptomatology and adaptive functioning over a six-month period. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities
Graucher, T., Sinai-Gavrilov, Y., Mor, Y., Netzer, S., Cohen, E., Levi, L., Birenboim, T., & Koller, J. (2022). From clinic room to zoom: Delivery of an evidence-based, parent-mediated intervention in the community before and during the pandemic. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities.doi.org/10.1007/s10803-022-05592-1
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