News and Knowledge

In October 2012, OAR’s Board of Directors approved 12 new studies for a total of $355,000 in funding through its annual Applied Research Competition. These research efforts, nine of which are now underway, are poised to advance our understanding of autism and how to effectively support those affected by it. This month, we feature previews of two more of these new studies.

Sleep Education Program for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Researcher: Whitney A. Loring, Psy.D., Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Funding Amount: $30,000; one-year grant period

Despite the success previous studies have had with educational programs targeting insomnia in children with autism, the success of these programs has not been applied to adolescents and young adults. The research team intends to use an education-based sleep program with the primary goal of not only improving sleep, but also daytime functioning so as to decrease the stressful implications these sleep difficulties have on individuals with autism and their families.

After two face-to-face sessions and two follow-up phone calls with approximately 20 study participants and their parents, the research team predicts that individuals will experience improvements in sleep latency (the amount of time it takes to transition from full wakefulness to sleep) compared to baseline. They also expect to see changes in daytime activity – decreased hyperactivity, longer attention spans, and fewer instances of repetitive behavior.

If the intervention is successful and eventually replicated on a larger scale, it could become regarded as an alternative method of managing sleep difficulties that does not require use of pharmaceutical medications, some of which have adverse effects after prolonged use.

Effects of Incidental Teaching on Expressive Language of School Age Children with ASD who use AAC

Researcher: Erinn Finke, Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University

Funding Amount: $27,344; one-year grant period

This study is aimed at testing the efficacy of an intervention called incidental teaching, which is intended to improve a child’s range of communication through the use of prompting, modeling, and elaboration, with children on the autism spectrum who require augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Incidental teaching strategies will be applied to promote joint attention (the skill of engaging with others around an object) and the production of multi-symbol messages. The research team hopes to find that this intervention has a positive effect on the communication skills of children who are severely impacted by autism.