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Lifeline Online  FEATURED Breakthrough in language analysis finds possible autism screenA new automated vocal analysis technology could fundamentally change the study of language development as well as the screening for autism spectrum disorders and language delay, reports a study in the July 19 online Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Read full story Schroeder returns to direct project of a lifetimeRetired LSI Director and Professor Emeritus Stephen Schroeder is glowing these days. As the principal investigator of a new NIH Fogarty International Center grant, he will be fulfilling a lifelong dream to research disability prevention and oversee the first early intervention program for disability in Lima, Peru, a place near and dear to his heart, the Centro Ann Sullivan del Peru (CASP). Read full story NEWS Children's Campus opens its doors The Children's Campus of Kansas City (CCKC) and the Educare of Kansas City held its grand opening on June 8, an event attended by some 400 community members, well-wishers and representatives from public and private supporters. Read full story and other news HONORS Special Ed investigators, grad student, receive awardsTwo LSI- affiliated scientists have received one-year professorships in the Department of Special Education for the 2010-11 academic year, awards made possible by former KU Chancellor Gene A. Budig. See full story MILESTONES Life Span employees honored for years of serviceTwenty-five LSI investigators were recognized for their years of service at a ceremony held in May on the KU-Lawrence campus.See full story PROJECT DEVELOPMENT NEWS LSI investigators received 10 new awards in the most recent quarter, |
FEATURED Autism has unique vocal signature, new technology reveals
Child vocalizations are acoustically complex but can be sampled A new automated vocal analysis technology could fundamentally change the study of language development as well as the screening for autism spectrum disorders and language delay, reports a study in the July 19 online Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The LENA™ (Language Environment Analysis) system automatically labeled infant and child vocalizations from recordings and thereafter an automatic acoustic analysis designed by the researchers showed that pre-verbal vocalizations of very young children with autism are distinctly different from those of typically developing children with 86 percent accuracy. The system also differentiated typically developing children and children with autism from children with language delay based on the automated vocal analysis. The research team, led by D. Kimbrough Oller, professor and chair of excellence in audiology and speech language pathology at the University of Memphis, called the findings a proof of concept that automated analysis of massive samples of vocalizations can now be included in the scientific repertoire for research on vocal development. Although aberrations in the speech (or lack of it) of children with autism spectrum disorders has been examined by researchers and clinicians for more than 20 years, vocal characteristics are not included in standard criteria for diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders, said Steven F. Warren, professor of applied behavioral science and vice provost for research at the University of Kansas, who contributed to the study and was among the first to see the potential of the technology for autism spectrum disorders screening. "A small number of studies had previously suggested that children with autism have a markedly different vocal signature, but until now, we have been held back from using this knowledge in clinical applications by the lack of measurement technology," said Warren. Warren predicts that LENA, which allow the inexpensive collection and analysis of magnitudes of data unimagined in language research before now, could significantly impact the screening, assessment and treatment of autism and the behavioral sciences in general. The researchers analyzed 1,486 all-day recordings from 232 children (or more than 3.1 million automatically identified child utterances) through an algorithm based on the 12 acoustic parameters associated with vocal development. The most important of these parameters proved to be the ones targeting syllabification, the ability of children to produce well-formed syllables with rapid movements of the jaw and tongue during vocalization. Infants show voluntary control of syllabification and voice in the first months of life and refine this skill as they acquire language. The autistic sample showed little evidence of development on the parameters as indicated by low correlations between the parameter values and the children's ages (from 1 to 4 years). On the other hand, all 12 parameters showed statistically significant development for both typically developing children and those with language delays. Warren says that children with autism spectrum disorders can be diagnosed at 18 months but that the median age of diagnosis is 5.7 years in the United States. "This technology could help pediatricians screen children for ASD to determine if a referral to a specialist for a full diagnosis is required and get those children into earlier and more effective treatments." Since the analysis is not based on words, but rather on sound patterns, the technology theoretically could potentially be used to screen speakers of any language for autism spectrum disorders, Warren said. "The physics of human speech are the same in all people as far as we know." LENA is digital language processor and language analysis software. The processor fits into the pocket of specially designed children's clothing and records everything the child vocalizes but can reliably distinguish child vocalizations from its cries and vegetative sounds, other voices and extraneous environmental sounds. Recordings with the device have been collected since 2006. Parents responded to advertisements and indicated if their children had been diagnosed with autism or language delay. A speech-language clinician employed by the project also evaluated many of the children with a reported diagnosis of language delay. Many of the parents of children with language delay and all of the children with autism supplied documentation from the diagnosing clinicians, who were independent of the research. The recordings were made by the parents at home and in the other natural environments of the children, by simply turning the recorder on and placing in the special children's clothing, and then worn all day. The discovery that it was possible to differentiate recordings of the autistic children from those of the typically developing children by the totally objective method of automated vocal analysis inspired the researchers to consider both the possibility of earlier screening and diagnosis and earlier intervention for children with autism. "Autism interventions remain expensive and arduous. This tool may help us to develop cost-effective treatments and better understand how they work and how to keep them working," said Warren. LENA could allow parents to continue and supplement language enrichment therapy at home and assess their own effectiveness for themselves, Warren said. "In this way, LENA could function similarly to the way a pedometer measures how much exercise one gets from walking." Schroeder returns to direct project of a lifetime
Stephen Retired LSI Director and Professor Emeritus Stephen Schroeder is glowing these days. As the principal investigator of a new NIH Fogarty International Center grant, he will be fulfilling a lifelong dream to research disability prevention and oversee the first early intervention program for disability in Lima, Peru, a place near and dear to his heart, the Centro Ann Sullivan del Peru (CASP). KU began collaborating with CASP in 1983 and made the affiliation with CASP official in 1990. At first, it was one-sided, with KU offering expertise in applied behavioral science, special education and pediatric medicine, but now, says, Schroeder, other countries are adopting the family-oriented, community-based lifelong CASP model. He even hopes that there can be a way of packaging the CASP model for the United States. With the Fogarty grant, Early Prevention of Aberrant Behavior in Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Peru, Schroeder continues his lifelong engagement with an old foe: severe aberrant behaviors in people with intellectual disabilities. Aberrant behaviors or self-injury, aggression and stereotyped behavior, are some of the most devastating neurodevelopmental disorders (ND). They lead to deteriorating health and, sometimes, early death; they prevent community integration; they impair learning and socialization opportunities and they are the major reason for people with ND to fail to keep jobs in the community, Schroeder explains. Aberrant behaviors are often linked to several gene-brain-behavior dysfunctions. Prevalence estimates of ND in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe average about 10 percent in total population studies. Among all people with ND, prevalence studies in these countries estimate approximately 10-25 percent have severe aberrant behaviors, but prevalence is unknown in Latin American countries. Extensive research on behavioral and psychopharmacological treatment and prevention exists, Schroeder said, but not in Latin America, where this population is severely underserved. This project aims to study the development and prevention of aberrant behaviors of people with ND in Peru (population 22 million), where only 2 percent of the population of an estimated 3 million people who have ND are being served. The project will screen 1000 infants and toddlers in Peru. Schroeder expects to find 250 who are at risk for ND, 6-36 mos., 50 percent of whom are also likely to be at risk for aberrant behaviors. The project will follow 100 or more of them plus 100 or more matched controls with ND (but not at risk for aberrant behaviors) at 6-month intervals for 12 months with in-depth interdisciplinary evaluations involving pediatric, psychoeducational, behavioral, neurological and genetic assessments to see if the children develop aberrant behaviors. The results of this early identification program will be followed by a five-year project grant on early preventive intervention of aberrant behavior in infants and young children with ND in Lima, Peru. This identification program grant will also concentrate on building on the existing excellent psycho-educational program and distance learning network at CASP by adding research infrastructure, increasing the research capacity of staff, translation and validation of assessment instruments, and collaborations with appropriate investigators in universities in the United States, Peru and other Latin American countries, who will then participate in the subsequent intervention program. Schroeder proposes that they will find differences in the development of aberrant behavior due to sociocultural practices and health issues, such as uncontrolled environmental pollution, in Latin America. "In Peru, there is not entitlement for disability," Schroeder said. "We plan to develop a risk algorithm that will permit a cost-effective effort at early preventive intervention that can be replicated throughout Latin America, across the CASP distance learning network and beyond, for young children with these extremely debilitating problems."
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