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Lifeline Online Spring 2009 Issue 102  FEATURED A recent study by two LSI investigators in the journal Development Psychobiology recently reported that pupil size in the eyes of children may be used to identify those with Autism Spectrum Disorders earlier than the typical three years of age. Read the full story. A new scientific society devoted to oromotor development in premature infants was officially created at a recent meeting at KU under the leadership of LSI investigator Steven Barlow. Read the full story. The new three-story 72,000-square foot Children’s Campus in Kansas City, Kan., is starting to take shape on the corner of 5th and Minnesota Avenue. Read the full story. IN THE NEWS A story in the Boston Globe about how we are learning more about the brains of babies quoted LSI Director John Colombo. Read the full story. When U.S. News and World Report needed an expert for a story on the employability of teenagers with autism, they turned to LSI’s Wendy Parent. Read the full story. ADMINISTRATIVE ANNOUNCEMENTS LSI centers may now have their own “signatures” for stationery, websites and print materials. Read the full story. HONORS Two former KU doctoral students who worked with LSI-affiliated scientists received top honors at the annual meeting of the Council for Exceptional Children. Read the full story. MILESTONES Long-time Parsons Jill-of-all Trades Pat White was among the recent retirees honored by KU. Read the full story. PROJECT DEVELOPMENT NEWS Six recent awards and 52 proposals submitted in the last few months explain, in part, why LSI researchers and central office staff have been burning the midnight oil. See the complete list. |
RESEARCH IN ACTION: SERVICE TO KANSAS AND THE WORLD Greenwood and Carta promote Continuous Progress Monitoring in Australia Judy Carta and Charles Greenwood, senior scientists and directors at Juniper Gardens Children’s Project in Kansas City, Kan., were the featured speakers at the 2009 Colloquium Series at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Carta and Greenwood are developing a collaboration with researchers at the Center for Children and Families Research at Macquarie centered on using the Early Communication Indicator measurement tools via the Individual Growth and Development Indicators for Infants and Toddlers (IGDI) website that was developed by the Juniper Gardens researchers. The IGDIs online progress monitoring is based on a set of measures designed and validated for use by early childhood practitioners and interventionists for the purpose of monitoring children's growth and progress. Unlike standardized tests that are administered infrequently, IGDIs are designed to be used repeatedly by practitioners in order to estimate each child's "rate of growth" over time. The distinctive benefit of this approach is that the information can be used to directly inform intervention design, implementation and modification at reasonable levels of training, time and cost. Early Head Start programs across the Kansas and other states are using the IGDI web site for progress monitoring. States can use the IGDIs for Infants and Toddlers to prepare the annual OSEP (Office of Special Education Programs) report. LSI Parsons sponsors electronic recycling event by Patty Black Moore, editor, The Insider 
Dave Lindeman and Chuck Spellman recycle televisions According to Kari West, public information officer for the City of Parsons, an estimated 25-30 volunteers helped with the e-waste collection event, including 15 staff, friends and family members of LSI at Parsons. Keith Martin, Labette County Extension Agent, said, “(The LSI group) really came through and made the event a success. It is amazing what can happen when everyone works together for a common good.” SEK Recycling received a grant from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to collect e-waste for recycling in various regions of the state. The Parsons event was the first. K-CART’s training program completes successful first year K-CART’s Autism Training Program (ATP) has made significant headway in training parent support and respite providers who can offer services to the growing number of Kansas children and their families qualifying for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services’ Autism Waiver Program. In its first year of operation, the ATP has trained 156 new service providers from 21 communities in central, southern and eastern Kansas. Twenty-two more providers will be trained between May and the end of July. Participants are preparing to be autism specialists and intensive individual support providers. Training sessions are full for June and July but there are openings every month beginning in September.Demand for Autism Waiver services remains strong, with the greatest need coming from the most populated sections of the state -- Sedgwick County and a five-county area in Northeast Kansas. Linda Heitzman-Powell, K-CART training director, expressed confidence in the program’s ability to continue to meet its mission, which is to increase the number of qualified service providers in Kansas to support home and community-based services. “We are excited about the prospect of improving both the scope and the quality of our training in our second year,” she said. KITS keeps Kansas educators in training KITS, the Kansas Inservice Training System, will hold its annual four-day Summer Institute, Evidence Based Practices for Effective Collaboration with Families, June 16-19 at the Adams Alumni Center on the University of Kansas. KITS was developed to meet the need for comprehensive statewide inservice training and technical assistance for early childhood special education professionals, paraprofessionals, related services professionals, and parents of young children with disabilities in Kansas. KITS is one of the many research dissemination and training activities of the Life Span Institute at Parsons (Kan.) overseen by David Lindeman, Parsons director. “KITS is how information from research on early childhood education and development generated at KU and other universities reaches the people on the front lines,” Lindeman said. KITS is supported by the Kansas State Department of Education and Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The goals of the Summer Institute include professional development, two college credit hours (all participants must enroll and take for credit), and in-depth training on the focused topic for the upcoming year. Undergraduate and graduate credit is offered by KU. Graduate credit is offered by Emporia State University, Fort Hays State University, Kansas State University, Wichita State University and Pittsburg State University. Enrollment for those seeking graduate credit will be done on site at the Summer Institute the first day. For more information. Fawcett appointed member of WHO Expert Advisory Panel 
Steve Fawcett and Dr. Gauden Galea (right), coordinator for Health The Work Group became a WHO Collaborating Centre for Community Health and Development in 2004 and Fawcett was a scholar-in-residence at the WHO in Geneva in 2007. The Work Group is collaborating with colleagues at the American University of Beirut to study efforts to create a safer and healthier environment for adolescents in a refugee camp in southern Beirut. McCart and colleagues redesign national site for OSEP Beach Center researchers Amy McCart, Wayne Sailor, Laura Riffel and colleagues across the country did a major redesign of pbis.org, the website of the Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS). The Center is a collaboration between the U.S. Department of Education and 11 technical assistance units across the United States. The Center is directed by George Sugai (University of Connecticut), Rob Horner (University of Oregon) and Tim Lewis (University of Missouri). The Center is built on a 10-year history of defining, implementing and evaluating PBIS across more than 9000 schools in 40 states. The Center is based on a documented need for improving the social behavior of students in U.S. schools and the demonstrated success of PBIS to improve both student social behavior and academic performance. The site’s many tools include a searchable resource catalog, a presentation database, videos on school-wide PBS as well as “Schoolwide PBS for Beginners,” PBS for families and a section on Response to Intervention and PBS. Beach Center conference focuses on young adult transition The Beach Center on Disability and Families Together, Inc., co-sponsored a day-long conference April 18 focusing on transition from high school to adulthood. Eighty individuals with disabilities, family members and professionals participated in the Whole LIVES Conference at the Kansas Union. Six regional speakers presented on having a vision and great expectations for the future, financial planning, benefits planning, vocational rehabilitation, employment and post-secondary education. A break-out session was held for transition-age students providing information regarding their rights and resources in the community. The conference ended with a panel of adults with disabilities and their parents. Panel participants discussed how to successfully transition from school to an inclusive, self-determined adult life. |