2020 Scholarship Recipients

Congratulations to the 2020 Scholarship Recipients!

Plural Publishing Research Scholarships

Emerson University

Characterizing "The Presence of Useful Speech" in 5-year-olds with ASD

Numerous studies have reported that “useful speech” at age 5 predicts outcomes in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), but this predictor has been vaguely defined. This study investigates which specific aspects of expressive language in 5-year-olds with ASD best correlate with adult outcomes. Spoken language of 5-year-olds from a longitudinal project (e.g., Lord et al., 2006) has been transcribed and coded. Preliminary results suggest that mean length of utterance (MLU) and verb diversity—but not noun diversity or number of communicative functions—significantly correlate with adult scores. These results have potential implications for clinical decision-making in the preschool period.

Caitlin Sapp

University of Iowa

Meaningful Audibility Counseling for Parents of Children with Hearing Loss

The effectiveness of early detection and intervention programs for infant hearing loss (HL) is hampered when early diagnosis does not result in early adoption of intervention. Based on the Health Belief Model, a parent’s decision to pursue intervention is largely influenced by perceptions regarding the severity and likelihood of adverse effects due to childhood HL, as well as the expected benefit of treatment. The focus of our research is to examine parent counseling after diagnosis as a malleable factor that can be leveraged to improve parent understanding of the functional implications of HL.