Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Yael Dai is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in working with autistic individuals and their families. She is particularly focused on early detection and enjoys conducting developmental and diagnostic evaluations for children under 5 years of age. Dr. Dai takes a strengths-based approach to assessment and intervention. Specifically, she believes in building on children’s strengths, preferences, and interests, to motivate children and increase learning opportunities.

Dr. Dai earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Dai then completed her Predoctoral Internship at Kennedy Krieger Institute/Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and her Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Dr. Dai has trained with leaders in the autism field to identify autism through screening and developmental and diagnostic evaluations.

In addition to conducting diagnostic assessments, Dr. Dai enjoys providing individual and family therapy. She is also researching ways to make autism assessments and interventions more accessible to families. Her research program is focused on the development and evaluation of telehealth autism assessments and interventions. She is also contributing to research on the implementation of a parent-mediated Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention (NDBI) through Part C early intervention.