Helen McCabe, Ph.D., BCBA
Dr. Helen McCabe, an associate professor in the Education Department at Daemen University near Buffalo, NY, teaches classes in special education and early childhood education and prepares teachers to educate and welcome children of all abilities into their classrooms. For three decades, her research and work have focused on autism, and specifically on education for children with autism in China. Dr. McCabe is passionate about education and support for children with autism and their families in the US and China and has accomplished some extraordinary international work.
Helen’s Journey
Having majored in East Asian Studies and Chinese in college, Dr. McCabe pursued a volunteer opportunity working with a child with autism in China and her life-long journey in this field began, 32 years ago. Returning to the US, after a year in China, she realized that she still wanted to study about China, but also wanted to become a special educator and so she decided to do both.
Inspired by her initial experience in China, Dr. McCabe continued to follow her passion and decided to get her Ph.D. in both International and Comparative Education (focus on China) and in Special Education. During her graduate work and after, she responded to many requests to provide training to teachers and families of children with autism in China. In order to better meet those needs, in 2007 she co-founded The Five Project for International Autism and Disability Support (FIVE), a non-profit whose goal was to support families and teachers in China, through capacity building, training, and resources. The name FIVE was chosen in honor of Zhang Ge, the little girl with autism who she met in China during her first trip there, because Zhang Ge’s favorite thing is the number 5! Though FIVE was dissolved as an organization in spring of this year, Dr. McCabe continues to provide support, mainly online in recent years, due to Covid restrictions. All of her work is conducted in Mandarin Chinese, which she has been studying and speaking since 1988!
Dr. McCabe was invited to serve as the keynote speaker for the ASIANetwork Annual Conference (2022), and at the Daemen University Diversity and Equity Summit (2023) to share her research and service work in China. In summer 2024, she returned to China for the first time since 2019 as a visiting professor, and while there she was invited to present several guest lectures, including at Nanjing Normal University of Special Education and at an event about autism in Beijing. In addition to frequent training for parents and teachers of children with autism in China, Dr. McCabe has conducted and published many research studies in the area of autism in China, including such topics as intervention for children with autism, family experiences, and both private and state-provided services for children with autism. She is a strong advocate for educational and community opportunities for children and adults with autism and continues to collaborate with partners in China. Based on her extensive experience in China, Helen is currently working on collaborative research to encourage people to fundamentally rethink how autism education is conducted in low resource environments, to ensure best practice and contextual fit.
DISES is pleased to share highlights of Helen’s extraordinary work and her inspiring journey that has led to significant contributions to the global community. If you are interested in learning more about Dr. McCabe’s work, she may be reached at hmccabe@daemen.edu.