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Postdoctoral Training in Translational Research on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
Currently, all four of our traineeships are filled. The next opening is for a start date on or after May 1, 2012. The position will remain open until filled.
Note that training-program faculty occasionally have openings for postdocs to work on research-grant supported projects. Contact individual faculty to learn of these possibilities
Description
The past few decades have seen extraordinary progress in understanding, preventing, and treating the behavioral and cognitive deficits associated with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD). Continued progress will require programmatic research that not only is informed by a broad, interdisciplinary perspective, but also integrates basic research and application. That is, progress in understanding and treating ID will require a translational research effort that entails not only the flow of knowledge from basic research to the solution of clinical problems, but also the laboratory investigation of the behavioral and biological mechanisms that underlie these problems.
The goal of this training program is to foster the development of researchers who are well prepared for a translational research career. Our primary means of achieving this goal will be the active and continuous participation of the trainees in the translational research programs of the mentors, and the guided development of trainees’ own lines of research. In keeping with the interdisciplinary, translational approach, program faculty come from several academic departments, including Speech-Language-Hearing, Psychology, Pharmacology and Toxicology, or have primary appointments in the Institute for Life Span Studies.
Project Administration
John Colombo, Ph.D.
Project Contact
Kathryn Saunders, Ph.D.ksaunders@ku.edu
phone: 620 421 6550, ext 1891
fax: 620 421 0954
This is a project of:
Kansas Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center
Funded by:
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Stipend levels:
How to apply
Preliminary application
Submit a brief (< 50 lines) written statement of research interests and skills that includes relevance of current skills to research in IDD, and how these interests might be pursued in the laboratories of one or more of the training-program faculty. Along with this statement, include a first-authored publication or manuscript, the names of three references, and a curriculum vita. Send materials to ksaunders@ku.edu and/or colombo@ku.edu. Applicants approved by a majority vote of the training-program search committee will be invited to submit a full application.
Applicants must be U.S. citizens or legal residents.
Full application
The full application will be submitted after in-depth discussions between the applicant and potential postdoctoral mentor(s) fully explore the trainee’s research objectives. This will involve a visit to KU and one or more potential labs. Discussions between the mentor(s) and trainee will result in the development of a written training plan that describes how the trainee’s research skills will be expanded. The written materials will include brief overviews of several research projects in which the trainee would be involved. These would be written by the trainee with assistance from the potential mentor, and will highlight the questions to be addressed, how those questions fit within a translational research program, and how projects are related to IDD. This plan will be sent to the training-program search committee, whose votes will determine whether the training plan merits acceptance to the program.
Faculty, academic appointments and research interests
Steven Barlow, Ph.D.
Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences and Disorders
Profile
Neural mechanisms of sensorimotor integration and motor control among orofacial and vocal tract structures in infants, children, and adults
Nancy Brady, Ph.D.
Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences and Disorders
Profile
Early communication in children with disabilities including children with fragile X syndrome, autism, Down syndrome and sensory impairments, variables contributing to the acquisition of gestures, and augmentative or alternative forms of communication including speech-generating devices and signed words and early vocabulary acquisition
Judith Carta, Ph.D.
Life Span Institute, Special Education
Profile
Project website
Response to intervention in Pre-K, evidence-based practices for young children, risk factors affecting children's development, monitoring progress in young children and parenting interventions and effects on young children
John Colombo, Ph.D.
Co-Director
Life Span Institute, Psychology
Profile
Developmental cognitive neuroscience of attention and learning with a special focus on early individual differences in these areas and how they relate to typical and atypical cognitive and intellectual function
Marc Fey, Ph.D.
Hearing and Speech (KU Medical Center)
Profile
Grammar development, early speech intervention, language intervention, prediction and prevention of written language disorders, development of children’s narrative abilities
Stephen Fowler, Ph.D.
Pharmacology & Toxicology, Life Span Institute
Profile
Psychopharmacology, behavioral pharmacology, behavioral neuroscience, biobehavioral instrumentation, neurotransmitter-related genes and behavior, antipsychotic drugs, central nervous system stimulants
Charles Greenwood, Ph.D.
Life Span Institute, Applied Behavioral Sciences
Profile
Project website
Measurement for practitioners in early childhood, instructional and behavioral interventions and intervention research design, analysis, and evaluation
Todd Little, Ph.D.
Psychology, Life Span Institute
Profile
Self-regulatory processes of individuals, the meta-theoretical cohesion of action-control theory, and the methodological consistency of using the most appropriate individual- and group-differences analytic system available.
Kate Saunders, Ph.D.
Co-Director
Life Span Institute
Profile
Foundational skills for early reading instruction, especially phonological awareness and the alphabetic principle, instructional programming for individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism, stimulus control, self-injurious and aggressive behavior
Steven F. Warren, Ph.D.
Life Span Institute
Applied Behavioral Sciences
Profile
Early communication and language development and intervention, and the prevention of mental retardation. Over the past 30 years, he has investigated the effects of a variety of different communication and language intervention strategies intended for use with children three years and younger who have developmental delays.
Dean Williams, Ph.D.
Life Span Institute
Profile
Translational research on maladaptive and aberrant behaviors in persons with developmental disabilities, behavioral laboratory research with humans and animals, research in analogue and clinical settings, animal models of maladaptive behaviors
Send corrections/comments/questions to lifespan@ku.edu
