News
Keep in control of alcohol intake over the holidays with these tips
$3M award to boost IDD research at KU
The University of Kansas has awarded the KU Life Span Institute a $3 million grant to expand the organization’s capacity, staff, recruitment, and training in intellectual and developmental disability research. ...
New $10 Million Grant to Promote Equity Leadership and Educator Well-Being
Federal surveys missing as many as 43 percent of individuals with disabilities
To better understand the prevalence of disability in America and to address health disparities, the Affordable Care Act mandated that federal health surveys collect data to identify people with disabilities. But new research from the University of Kansas has found that the two most common sets of disability questions used...
CDC-Funded Research Project at KU to Evaluate Initiatives to Reduce Youth Violence in Kansas City Metro Area
With an aim to inform and develop local solutions to reduce community rates of youth violence nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has awarded the University of Kansas a grant to establish one of only five federally funded national centers of excellence on youth violence prevention. ...
New federal awards to SWIFT Education Center will fund projects that move schools from inclusion to rightful presence
SWIFT Education Center, within the Life Span Institute at the University of Kansas, has received two federal awards for a total of $13 million to support educational systems in transforming their policies and practices to create schools where students have the resources and sense of belonging that they need to...
Fall Seminar Series Features Experts in Substance Use and Treatment, Eating Behaviors and LGBTQ+ Health Disparities
The Cofrin Logan Center for Addiction Research and Treatment at the University of Kansas will launch its fall seminar series this week with a talk presented by a University of Kentucky scientist who studies cocaine use disorder. ...
Measure to Teach Students Self-Determination Translated to American Sign Language, Shown to be Effective with Deaf Youth
LAWRENCE — A research-based assessment of self-determination is effective with deaf youth and speakers of American Sign Language, a new study from the University of Kansas and the University of Texas at Austin has shown. Promoting self-determination is a way to give young people agency in their education and goals...
Staff Share Systems of Support for Employment and Transition with Disability Caucus
Staff from the KU Life Span Institute joined dozens of individuals with disabilities, advocates and professionals from across the state Aug. 10-12 at the Kansas Disability Caucus in Topeka, Kan. ...
Mosconi to Co-Chair Annual Meeting of International Society for Autism Research
Matt Mosconi, interim associate director and senior scientist at the KU Life Span Institute, has been selected to help lead the scientific program for the International Society for Autism Research, or INSAR, over the next two years. ...
REDCap Reports With Longitudinal Data
KU Life Span Institute Finance Administrator Named Haskell Board of Regents President
Brittany Hall, a staff member at the KU Life Span Institute, has been elected president of the National Board of Regents of Haskell Indian Nations University. ...
Understanding survey bots and tools for data validation: Strategies for identifying possibly fraudulent responses
If you plan to have an open research survey that you distribute through email lists or social media, especially if you indicate that you will be compensating your survey subjects, you should expect to have your survey completed by “bots” and should plan accordingly. This post will try to address...
KU Center Director, Interim Liberal Arts Dean Receives Research Award from International Congress on Infant Studies
Missouri Scientist to Discuss Overdose Crisis, Need to Improve Addiction Treatment Systems, Policies
LAWRENCE — Longtime disinvestment in health and social supports, roadblocks to treatment, historical trauma and the addition of fentanyl to the drug supply have combined to put Black communities at great risk for drug overdoses and deaths. In St. Louis, Black residents have the highest rates of drug-involved deaths of...
KU Autism Conference to Feature Research for Families, Professionals, Educators
The Kansas Center for Autism Research and Treatment will host the conference Autism Across the Life Span on April 8 at the KU Edwards Campus BEST Building. ...
New Research Pinpoints Promising Gene Target Specific Language Impairment
LAWRENCE — A study from the University of Kansas recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Brain Sciences identifies a new gene target related to Specific Language Impairment (SLI). ...
James Thompson Receives Fulbright Specialist Award to Portugal
James Thompson, professor of special education at the University of Kansas, has received a Fulbright Specialist Award to lead a series of plenary presentations and workshops in Portugal this semester. ...
New members welcomed at SWIFT Education Center
In the last year, SWIFT Education Center welcomed more new staff members to their team. The expanded team will help the Center bring an equity-based, multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) to school districts across the country. ...
Project Now Housed at KU Adds to 60 Years of Intellectual and Developmental Disability Research at the University
One of only three federally funded longitudinal data projects of national significance that collects and analyzes how public funds are expended on services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities has moved to the University of Kansas, building on 60 years of work in the field at KU. ...
KU Lands Grants to Work with Families, Communities to Improve Transition for Individuals with Disabilities
The University of Kansas has secured a pair of grants that will enable researchers to partner with community leaders, self-advocates with disabilities, and families to help improve the transition of young people with disabilities from school to vocational training, higher education, and careers. ...
International Report on Autism Offers Comprehensive Model of Autism Care
KU-Led National Health Project Awarded $600,000 Grant to Study Experiences of People with Disabilities Affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic
Autism Research That Relies On Preschool Peers Receives Grant To Study Predictive Factors For Communication Development
KU collaborative project that will evaluate method to help children’s literacy skills awarded $3.5 million
LAWRENCE – A national team that includes researchers from the University of Kansas has launched a five-year, $3.5 million project to study the efficacy of a language and comprehension program for elementary-age children. ...
Honoring a Life: Family Hopes Sharing Story and Establishing Research Fund Will Reduce Stigma of Addiction
Juniper Gardens Children's Project Enrolling Preschoolers with Autism for a Research Study
Partnership aims to improve student achievement in Washington, DC, area schools
By focusing on improving the experiences of students with disabilities in Washington, D.C., schools, a University of Kansas center dedicated to improving equity and justice in education will partner with the District of Columbia Office of State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) for a $3 million, five-year program to help educators...
KU researcher to test community-based method to help adolescents with autism take lead in education, careers
Research has shown that when students with disabilities shape their own learning, career and life goals, they attain higher levels of achievement than when following routine curriculum and plans. A University of Kansas researcher has earned a grant to test an evidenced-based intervention designed to enhance self-determination in community-based settings...
Study shows differences in rapidly processing sensory feedback among people with autism spectrum disorder
Sensorimotor issues aren’t well understood in people with autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, yet they are important because they can be observed before social and communication indicators for the disorder, and they can predict worse functional outcomes. Such skills can impact everything from handwriting to zipping up a coat to...