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News from the Center on Human Development and Disability at the University of Washington Health Sciences Center
Current Issue
2012 Issue#1- LENDing a Helping Hand to Children with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities by Joel Schwarz
Highlights the LEND (Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities) at CHDD and the new director, Beth Ellen Davis, MD, MPH. With Dr. Davis at the helm, LEND at the CHDD is planning to increase the number of participants by 50 percent in the next five years as well as expand the program's geographical reach. Several interdisciplinary programs and personnel are featured.
2011 Issues
2011 Issue#6- Preventing Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders by Joel Schwarz
Highlights the Parent-Child Assistance Program (PCAP) directed by CHDD Research Affiliate Therese Grant. PCAP is designed to reduce the incidence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), a range of lifelong neurodevelopmental disorders that includes fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), a disorder caused by heavy prenatal exposure to alcohol. Today it is serving clients in 10 locations throughout Washington state, two similar PCAP programs in California, one in Michigan and more than 40 throughout Canada.
2011 Issue#5- Epo May Provide Breath of Life to Newborns Experiencing Severe Oxygen Deprivation by Joel Schwarz
CHDD Research Affiliate Sandra Juul is searching for a treatment for perinatal asphyxia (or severe oxygen deprivation). Erythropoietin (Epo), a hormone produced in the kidneys that controls and stimulates the production of oxygen-transporting red blood cells, may mitigate and even reverse some of the devastating neonatal brain injuries caused by asphyxia as well as by stroke and intracerebral hemorrhage.
2011 Issue#4- Academic Performance and Cognitive Abilities in Children with ASD by Joel Schwarz
CHDD Research Affiliate Annette Estes investigated the IQ scores of high functioning nine-year-old children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and how they scored on standardized tests that measured reading, spelling, and mathematics. The research has implications for interventions to assist children with ASD as well as a number of future directions for researchers to explore.
2011 Issue#3- Enzyme Inhibitors May Block Injury from Stroke, Promote Recovery by Joel Schwarz
Highlights CHDD Research Affiliate Richard Morrison's investigation of the potential of Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors to block cell death in the nervous system caused by stroke. Stroke is one of the top 10 causes of death in the first year of life. HDAC may also help by assisting white matter cells recover potentially reducing permanent neurological deficits in children who survive a stroke.
2011 Issue#2- Unraveling the Puzzle of Epilepsy by Joel Schwarz
Edward J. Novotny, M.D., a CHDD Research Affiliate, is using new imaging techniques that enable the study of epilepsy–a syndrome encompassing more than 40 disorders characterized by episodic abnormal brain activity. Novotny, also the head of the epilepsy program at Seattle Children's Hospital, expects even greater progress in the study of the brain at the molecular level in coming years.
2011 Issue#1- Improving Teaching in Head Start by Joel Schwarz
A new Center on Quality Teaching and Learning is designed to improve teaching practices in Head Start programs. Co-director Susan Sandall, Ph.D., focuses on developing effective teaching practices for young children with disabilities and how to prepare teachers and other Head Start personnel to work them.
2010 Issues
2010 Issue#6- Exploring and Stretching the Boundaries of Brain Imaging by Joel Schwarz
Spotlights CHDD's Integrated Brain Imaging Center (IBIC), headed by director Thomas Grabowski, exploration of new brain imaging techniques that someday may enable clinicians to better understand and treat patients suffering from such conditions as stroke, epilepsy, Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.
2010 Issue#5- UW Autism Center Launches New Programs by Joel Schwarz
Wendy Stone, the UW Autism Center's new director, has developed a program to screen children at least 12 months old and under the age of two for early indications of autism using Screening Tool for Autism in Toddlers (STAT) which she developed.
2010 Issue#4- Six-month-old Infants with Deformational Plagiocephaly Show Delays in Early Motor Skills by Joel Schwarz
New work headed by CHDD research affiliate Mathew Speltz indicates that deformational plagiocephaly (DP) in infants and young children, formerly believed to be only a cosmetic issue, may be related to developmental delays in six-month-old infants.
2010 Issue#3- Training Pediatric Audiologists to Alleviate Shortage by Joel Schwarz
Spotlights a new program to meet a critical need for more specialists in pediatric audiology. An estimated 255 of the approximate 85,000 babies born in Washington state every year are diagnosed with permanent hearing loss. The Clinical Training Unit (CTU) based at the CHDD has initiated this project with newly acquired federal funding.
2010 Issue#2-Difficulty in Processing Information about Faces Stresses Brains of Persons with ASDsby Kris Freeman
Spotlights CHDD research affiliate Natalia Kleinhans's recent brain imaging research that involved adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Persons with ASDs experience stressful social interaction. Her work involves looking at an area of the brain called the amygdala and the different patterns of activity between adults with and without ASDs.
2010 Issue#1-UW Autism Center Study Reveals Benefits of Early Intervention for Toddlers by Joel Schwarz
Spotlights the groundbreaking study by the University of Washington’s Autism Center of early intervention for children with autism who are younger than 2½ years of age. Ashton, who is now 6, is among 48 youngsters who received an intensive intervention program which showed dramatic improvements in participants' social interaction, IQ, language ability and autism diagnosis.
2009 Issues
2009 Issue#3-UW Employment Training Program Fosters Opportunity by Kris Freeman
Spotlights the University of Washington’s Employment Training Program (UWETP). For more than 30 years UWETP employment specialists, counselors, and staff helped employers develop new jobs, place clients with intellectual disabilities in existing jobs, provide or arrange job training, and offer ongoing support once a client is established in a job.
2009 Issue#2-Working to Reduce Brain Damage from Stroke by Kris Freeman
Spotlights the work of CHDD research affiliates Thomas Moeller, Jonathan Weinstein, and Sean Murphy. Their goal is to reduce a significant cause of developmental disabilities by researching stroke that occurs before or just after birth, both the basic mechanisms of inflammation and medications with the potential to reduce that inflammation.
2009 Issue#1- Genetic ‘Hot Spots’ Linked to Developmental Disabilities by Kris Freeman
Spotlights the work of CHDD research affiliate Evan Eichler, a pioneer in discovering genetic mutations and detecting their associations with developmental disabilities.
For more information, contact: chdd@uw.edu
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