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| COMMUNICATIONS -
PAST GRANTS |
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Chapman
University , Orange , CA
2000-2002
Principal Investigator: Don Cardinal, Ph.D.
A
Two Year Study of Communication Options for People with
Autism and Their Effects on Quality of Life
This
investigator is conducting a national survey of individuals
who know well a person who uses an alternative or augmentative
communication (AAC) system. Its intent is to determine
if users of AAC have had significant increases in quality
of life since they began using these communication systems.
Responses of those who identify Facilitated Communication
(FC) as their primary communication method will be compared
to individuals using other AAC methods. A publication
will be created that will describe the impact that FC has
had in the lives of individual FC users.
Don
Cardinal
Chapman University , Orange , CA
2001-2003
Principal Investigators: Don Cardinal, Ph.D., Sally Young,
Ph.D., Alan Fogel, Ph.D.
Engendering Change in the Movement and Communication Difficulties
Experienced By Adults with Autism: A Dynamic Systems Approach
Using Feldenkrais Movement Therapy
This
study will evaluate the efficacy of Feldenkrais movement
therapy as a tool to improve motor planning and function
in people with the label of low-functioning autism.
By showing the potential for change in long-standing movement
patterns, this study will provide a deeper understanding
of movement and communication difficulties experienced by
this group and of contextual elements that can support and
engender the change process. All of these new understandings
will be used to formulate more precise, experimental protocols
in the future.
Don
Cardinal
Fogel
Infant Laboratory
Lesley
College Graduate School , Division of Educational Studies
& Public Policy, Cambridge , MA
1992
Principal Investigators: Anne Larkin, Ph.D. and Susan Gurry,
Ed.D.
Facilitated
Communication with Young Adults: Issues and Transitions
This
study will examine the implications of Facilitated Communication
with young adult men with autism living in community residential
facilities. The study examines the following three questions:
Can Facilitated Communication enable people with autism
to demonstrate that they have high levels of understanding?;
Does Facilitated Communication succeed with some people
with autism and not others?; Can there by any breakthrough
in expressive communication as a result of this training
procedure? Following initial training in Facilitated Communication,
the project directors will follow the communication attempts
between three young men ages 25-29 and their group home
staff for a six-month period. Notes from monthly meetings,
videotaped recordings, transcripts of the actual communication
sessions and exit interviews with staff and administration
will be recorded and analyzed.
School
of Education - Lesley University
The Open University, United Kingdom
2001
Principal
Investigator: Andrew Grayson, Ph.D.
Facilitated
Communication: A Systematic Observational Research Project
Involving Fine-Grained Video Analysis and Eye Tracking (funded
through NAAR)
Facilitated
communication (FC) is a strategy which aims to enhance communication
skills by helping people learn to point or type. It is controversial
when used by people with autism because it involves physical
contact between the FC user and facilitator, making it difficult
to determine who is responsible for the typing. Some peer-reviewed
studies have concluded that the emergent language is being
authored by the facilitator, while some speech and language
professionals maintain that FC is a useful strategy.
This
research will use fine-grained video analysis to measure
typing-related behaviors in FC users and facilitators. By
comparing the same FC users working with different facilitators,
and facilitators working with different FC users, inferences
about authorship can be drawn based on behavioral inconsistencies.
If an FC user is typing, one would expect to see consistency
in the way they type letters and words, irrespective of
who is giving physical support. This project also explores
the usefulness of eye-tracking technology as a means for
enhancing understanding of FC. FC users will wear eye-tracking
equipment while typing, which shows where they are looking
at any given point in time.
Andy
Grayson
TASH,
Baltimore, MD
2005
Fostering
Support of a Full Range of Communication Methods and Empowering
Users of Facilitated Communication and other Augmentative
and Alternative Communication Methods
TASH
is an international association of people with disabilities,
their family members, and professionals advocating for inclusion
of all people in all aspects of society. The aim of this
project is to identify and overcome barriers that stand
in the way of people with communication differences and
difficulties self-directing their lives and becoming full
participants in their communities and the disabilities rights
movement. Project teams, including people with autism who
have communicated using Facilitated Communication (FC) and
TASH staff, will accomplish this goal by: 1) broadening
the voice of Alternative and Augmentative Communication
(AAC) users by building better connections with self-advocacy,
advocacy and the disability community regarding communication
rights; 2) building a comprehensive website which will provide
resources on FC, including research articles, training information,
and information on legislative action; 3) increasing the
number of organizations that understand the importance of
communication and accept as a valid, evidence-based practice
the full range of AAC methods; 4) bringing AAC users and
advocates to Washington, DC to participate in an organized
public policy day; and 5) making Hill visits to educate
elected officials about the issues regarding the need for
research about and access to funding and services for AAC.
TASH
University
of Connecticut, Storrs , CT
2002
Principal
Investigator: Letitia Naigles, Ph.D.
The
Development of Language Comprehension in Children with Autism:
A Longitudinal Study Using the Intermodal Preferential Looking
Program (funded through NAAR)
Dr.
Naigles is investigating early language acquisition in children
with autism. Is the process of language acquisition in children
with autism similar to that of typically developing children?
What do language comprehension measures reveal about the
process and products of language acquisition in children
with autism? Dr. Naigles plans to access language of children
with autism using comprehension measures that may reveal
both hidden strengths and weaknesses in their language acquisition.
Using a method called "Intermodal Preferential Looking",
a child observes two simultaneously presented video events
while listening to linguistic stimulus that describes only
one of the events. If the child watches the matching event
more than the nonmatching event, the child is inferred to
have comprehended the linguistic stimulus. This method has
been used on typically developing toddlers, and the researchers
have already successfully applied it to three children with
autism. This research has the potential to provide information
concerning treatment strategies and insights into deficits
and strengths in language comprehension of children with
autism.
Letitia
Naigles
University of Illinois, The Psychiatric
Institute, Chicago , IL
2002-2004
Principal Investigator: Stephen Porges, Ph.D.
Stimulating
Social Communication in Adolescents and Adults with Autism
Spectrum Disorders: A Neurological Approach
The
goal of this project is to demonstrate the efficiency and
efficacy of the Listening Project, a biologically-based
behavioral intervention derived from the Polyvagal Theory,
on adolescent and adult individuals with Autism Spectrum
Disorder. The Polyvagal Theory provides a neurobiological
explanation for specific neural mechanisms associated with
the spontaneous social behavior expressed by humans.
This project is based on the premise that social behavior
is a naturally occurring emergent property of the human
nervous system. According to this model, positive
social behavior is dependent on the nervous system being
in a specific state. Intervention strategies that foster
this state will have a positive impact on the social interaction
skills of people with autism. The research program
focuses on the development, evaluation, and application
of this class of interventions in a cohort of adults with
autism.
The
Psychiatric Institute
Stephen
Porges
University of Illinois, The Psychiatric Institute, Chicago
, IL
2005-2007
Principal
Investigator: Stephen Porges, Ph.D.
Stimulating
Social Engagement Behaviors in Individuals with Autism
The
Social Engagement System, based on the Polyvagal Theory,
provides a neurobiological model of how difficulties in
spontaneous social behavior are related to facial expressivity
and regulation of bodily state. Relevant to autism
are specific deficits in the Social Engagement System that
are expressed in behaviors dependent on muscles of the face
and head and regulation of bodily state. This grant explores
the hypothesis that spontaneous social behavior, social
awareness, affect expressivity, prosody, language development
and a behavioral "reliance" on restricted repetitive and
stereotyped patterns of behavior are, in part, derivative
and predictable consequences of problems in the neural regulation
of the Social Engagement System. The aims of the research
are: 1) to describe the autistic nervous system through
the development of new theory-driven measures that may have
immediate application in the assessment of impairment and
evaluation of intervention outcomes; and 2) to expand current
successful intervention technologies to an adult population
and to determine the features of individuals who will benefit
from this intervention.
The
Psychiatric Institute
Stephen
Porges
Yale
University Child Study Center, New Haven , CT
2000-2001
Principal
Investigators: Fred R. Volkmar, M.D. and Katarzyna Chawarska,
Ph.D.
Precursors
of Joint Attention Skills in Autism and Related Conditions
(funded through NAAR)
Joint
attention is considered a basic social skill upon which
rest the development of reciprocal communication and thinking
about others. Deficits in joint attention are virtually
universal in children with autism. Mechanisms underlying
joint attention deficits are poorly understood. This study
will identify and measure precursors of joint attention
skills. The researchers will focus on spontaneous gaze monitoring,
or the capacity for knowing gaze of others to objects and
events. The precursors of this capacity will be studied,
including the capacity for engaging in eye-to-eye attention
with others by maintaining eye contact and the capacity
for using gaze of others to regulate one's own behavior.
The researchers aim to identify any differences in profiles
of infants with autism from profiles of non-autistic developmentally
delayed and typically developing children. This will allow
the researchers to specify which abilities are present and
which are not, in an effort to breakdown gaze monitoring
into its component parts. This research could elucidate
the origins of gaze abnormalities in autism, advance our
understanding of neural substrates involved in the social
disability seen in autism, and contribute to the design
of diagnostic instruments aimed at detecting autism prior
to 18 months of age.
Yale
Child Study Center
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