News
Grant aims to improve outcomes for students with disabilities at 20 charter schools across the country
KU Researchers honored for transformative research in the field of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
KU Center Joins Partnership to Increase Inclusion, Achievement in Washington Schools
Helping Every Child Thrive: An Interview with Brian Boyd of the Juniper Gardens Children's Project
For Brian Boyd, director of the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project at the KU Life Span Institute, a passion for autism research ignited at a summer camp job during his undergraduate years. It led to a career dedicated to early interventions for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and a focus...
Autism Spectrum Disorder and Interrupted Routines: Center Offers Advice for Families and Caregivers
In addition to the experience of being a parent of a child with autism, Sean is the director of community program development for the Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training, or K-CART, a research center at the Life Span Institute. The center has been fielding questions about how to...
$2.5 million grant supporting online tool to helps students understand science concepts
Study Shows LGBTQ+ Individuals with Autism Have Greater Health Disparities Than Peers
Individuals with disabilities or who identify as LGBTQ+ often encounter difficulties in navigating the American health care system. A new study from the University of Kansas has found that people with autism spectrum disorder who identify as LGBTQ+ have greater health disparities than their peers, including being denied service or...
KU wins grants to develop national trainings to support decion-making in individuals with disabilities
University of Kansas researchers have secured three grants to advance understanding of how to support people with disabilities to participate in the most important decisions about their lives. ...
Wheelchair users face barriers to access, damaged equipment when traveling
Apprehension is expected before a traveler boards a flight, whether it’s anxiety about airline safety or worrying about a delayed flight. ...
Bridging the Gap: Grant to Expand Coaching Availability to Serve Children with Autism
Two-year-old Baylee Shriner plays with toys like other children her age now, but that wasn’t the case several months ago. Baylee, who has autism spectrum disorder, had trouble interacting with the world around her and could not communicate with her mother, Linzi Shriner, of Tonganoxie, Kan. ...
Workshop to help faculty use applied improvisation to improve the communication of research
New Study Offers Data-Driven Definition of Unhealthy Yet Pervasive Hyper-Palatable Foods
A popular U.S. brand of potato chips once promoted itself with the slogan “betcha can’t eat just one!”...
Research Gauges Neurodegeneration Tied to Genetic Disorder by Measuring Motor Behavior
The neurological disorder FXTAS (pronounced “fax-tas”) stems from a genetic premutation seen in one of every 151 women and one of every 468 men, called the FMR1 premutation. ...
Scientist Honored with Early Career Award
Derek Reed, Associate Professor of Applied Behavioral Science and Scientist in the Cofrin Logan Center for Addiction Research and Treatment, is the 2019 recipient of the Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (FABBS) Early Career Impact Award for the Association for Behavior Analysis International. The award is presented...
KU to Host Conference on Genetic Disorders
The Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training at the University of Kansas Life Span Institute and the Kansas Chapter of the National Fragile X Foundation will co-host a conference on FMR1 gene disorders that will bring together family members, caregivers, researchers, educators, therapists and individuals who want to learn...
Technology may lead to a way for those unable to physically talk to speak virtually
A pioneering research project at KU may one day give voice to individuals robbed of their speech by neuromuscular diseases such as ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. ...
KU Names New Director, Additional Leadership for Center for Service Learning
Undergraduate Studies at the University of Kanas has named Jomella Watson-Thompson, associate professor of applied behavioral science, as director of the Center for Service Learning (CSL). ...
New Book Explores How Ordinary People Make Decisions When Confronted with Uncertainty
For decades, statisticians, economists, philosophers and mathematicians have studied how to make decisions in the face of uncertainty, and typically their analyses have focused on how to use probability theory from mathematics to harness this vexing problem. ...
Sesame Workshop Senior Vice President Will Talk About New Book Oct. 4
When Rosemarie Truglio was growing up in Hoboken, New Jersey, “Romper Room” was the closest thing to educational programming on television. Like other children across the country, she waited for the host of that "live kindergarten" program to hold up her magic mirror and call out the names of children...
Seeking a better understanding of the motor problems experienced by individuals with autism spectrum disorder
The child in the chair looks like she’s preparing to play a video game. She leans toward the monitor in a darkened room, the dim light of the screen illuminating her face. A dot appears on the screen. But instead of zapping the dot with a game controller, she tracks...
Training your working memory may help curb chronic health conditions
We have all had moments when we chose to skip the gym and eat the piece of cake or take the extra helping, even though we knew that we wanted to lose weight. ...
Researchers Will Test System Customized to Help Individual Students Succeed
As no two students learn the same way, educators are relying more on systems with a variety of methods to improve students’ educational opportunities. To that end, University of Kansas researchers will test a systems-level framework known as the Comprehensive, Integrated, Three-Tiered (Ci3T) Model of Prevention, designed to provide customized...
Addiction Treatment Program for Community Members to Expand
LAWRENCE - A free University of Kansas program that helps community members with addictions is set to expand thanks to a local grant and support from Douglas County. ...
Study Finds People with Autism Show Atypical Brain Activity When Coordinating Visual and Motor Information
A new study in the Journal of Neurophysiology by researchers at the University of Kansas Life Span Institute is the first to look at functional brain activity in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) while they performed precision visuomotor behavior — in this case, a grip-force test. ...
Study Shows Adults with Disabilities Have Challenges with Insurance, Despite Improvements to ACA
LAWRENCE — Expansion of the Affordable Care Act in 2014 improved access to insurance and represented gains in health care for adults with disabilities. But while those gains were documented, what wasn’t known was what challenges still existed in accessing care for that population. A new study from the University...
KU Researchers Land Grant to Develop Eating Disorder Screening Tool for Military VA
LAWRENCE — When one thinks of the military, images of elite, highly fit soldiers often come to mind. Conversely, talk of eating disorders generally steers toward undernourished individuals, often young women. However, data has shown that the prevalence of eating disorders in the military is roughly the same as in...
Workshop series designed to boost health of Native American children
Native American parents of young children are invited to a workshop Tuesday, April 2, in Mayetta to help foster the health and development of Native American children from local tribal communities. The program is part of a partnership between University of Kansas researchers and area urban and rural Native American...
Project to pilot tools to meet STEM learning goals in California classrooms
LAWRENCE — Just as the tools of the classroom have changed from slates and blackboards to tablets and computers, so, too, have the learning goals changed. ...
KU researchers to develop virtual reality to improve social competencies for students with disabilities
Students with disabilities often do not learn social skills or pick up on social cues at the same pace as their peers. The Office of Special Education and Programs in the United States Department of Education granted KU researchers $2.5 million for a five-year program to implement VR that delivers...