Past Research Projects
Sleep Patterns in Children with ASD was conducted to better understand sleep patterns in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). By improving our understanding of sleep problems in ASD new intervention approaches can be developed which may lead to improved behavior, health, emotion regulation, and attention. The purpose of this research study was to determine if the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) could be administered to children with ASD. The PVT is a widely used tool in sleep research, meant to measure attention after a night of sleep. The PVT is a 5-minute test where your child will be asked to press anywhere on the screen as soon as you see a red circle.
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The CLOUDS Study Researchers at the UW Bloedel Hearing Research Center invited children ages 7– to 10-years old with and without autism to participate in a study to learn about how the brain helps us listen in noisy real-world environments. This study consisted of two 3-hour visits and an EEG recording, developmental assessments, a hearing screening, and a parent questionnaire. To learn more, please contact our research coordinator at (206) 616-2041 or landlab@uw.edu.
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Social and Sensory Processing Study The goal of this study was to better understand the biochemical, brain, and behavioral causes of social challenges and sensory sensitivity in children with autism. Data analyses are currently underway! We hope that the information gained in this study will lead to advancements in our understanding of individuals with autism and sensory processing disorder.
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Tadpole The UW (Estes, PI) was part of an National Institutes of Health, Autism Center of Excellence (ACE) multi-site network study of early, intensive behavioral intervention for toddlers with ASD. This project, conducted with UC Davis MIND institute (Rogers, Network PI) and Vanderbilt (Yoder, PI), assessed the effects of one year of in-home early intervention of varying intensity levels (15 vs 25 hours per week) and delivery style (Discreet Trial Training vs Early Start Denver Model) for improving outcomes for young children with autism and their families. We are currently conducting data analyses, so stay tuned for study findings!
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Early Steps Study This is a multi-site intervention study with MIND and UMICH to replicate the ESDM study (Dawson 2010). We have at least one publication from this but the main study results are just accepted and will be published soon!!
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Time and Movement (TAM) Study. This study evaluated brain functioning in 8-12 year-old children using eye blink conditioning. This objective test of brain function is being used to characterize the different brain regions and functions that may underlie the range of intellectual and motor abilities in children with autism. Analysis of this data is underway! Stay tuned for a link to the findings once they have been published.
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Strengthening the effects of parent-delivered early intervention to improve symptoms of ASD. This project helped determine if parent-implemented interventions can be effective in improving outcomes for young children with ASD. The project developed a more powerful intervention by improving our parent coaching approaches (using the science of adult behavior change) to increase the number of learning opportunities parents provide for their children. We have reported the results of this study in a number of published articles.
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HARE — Human Action Recognition Engine. Analyzing video of behavior to assess infants at risk for autism or other developmental delays is a resource-intensive, subjective process, and requires extensive training to attain reliability – all factors that preclude wide clinical deployment of these specialized assessment methods. We aim to build a Human Action Recognition Engine (HARE) that leverages computer vision tools to automatically extract, quantify and classify known motor actions, introducing a significantly more efficient and standardized method of conducting and scoring video data captured at critical periods in development.