Project Title	Description
AUCD CDC Act Early Mini-grant
Leadership Education In Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilties Autism Expansion Grant	The purpose of this grant is to train professionals in interdisciplinary skills who can take leadership and advocate for changes to health delivery systems. Emphasis is in autism spectrum disorders
Leadership Education In Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilties	Kansas is a rural state and has pockets of underserved children with special health care needs. The purpose of this grant is to train professionals in interdisciplinary skills who can take leadership and advocate for changes to health delivery systems.
Research - Parent Perceptions of Oral and Dental Health in Children with Special Health Care Needs	The purpose of this project is to ascertain the parental perception of unmet and met dental needs for children with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities. To date, there is no data in regard to the perceived dental care needs and dental care received by children with autism spectrum disorder who receive psychosocial medical care from the University of Kansas Medical Center, Center for Child Health and Development and/or the Department of Behavior and Development at the Children?s Mercy Hospital and Clinics. The information obtained in this project will be used to develop oral health initiatives designed to 1) address unmet dental needs and 2) provide oral health care education and support for patients and their families being seen in these care facilities. Investigators: Brenda Bohaty, D.D.S., Louann Rinner, MSEd, OTR/L, R. Matthew Reese, Ph.D.Collaborative Institutions: University of Kansas Center for Child Health and Development (CCHD), University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC) and Children?s Mercy Hospital and Clinics (CMH)
Workshop - Autism Screening and Evaluation for Early Intervention and School-age Teams	Center for Child Health and Development faculty provide information about characteristics of autism spectrum disorders and screening and evaluation tools used in the diagnostic process. Early intervention and school-age teams recruit a physician expressing commitment to be a collaborative partner in the evaluation process. Increasing the capacity of local expertise to identify an autism spectrum disorder in their own community context, provides valuable services to families who might otherwise need to drive great distances and increased expense to obtain diagnostic information about their child's health and development. Additionally, there should be a more expeditious timeframe for follow-up on concerns and implementation for effective interventions.
Kansas Institute for Positive Behavior Support
Kansas University Center for Child Health and Development Health Clinics	Children with developmental and behavioral concerns present challenges that are often puzzling for families, physicians and teachers. The Kansas University Center for Child Health and Development(CCHD), located at the Kansas University Medical Center campus in Kansas City provides clinical health services for diagnosis of children with developmental disabilities. Our interdisciplinary teams provide assistance to families, teachers, doctors and others who work with them. Professionals, along with the family, develop a thorough understanding of the child's strengths and needs for development of treatment recommendations. Clinical services include, but are not limited to: Autism Diagnostic Clinic (ADC), Childhood Autism Referral and Evaluation Clinic (CARE), Developmental Evaluation Clinic (DEC), Feeding Clinic, Interactive Television Clinic (ITV), Neurodevelopmental Medicine Clinic, NICU Developmental Follow Up Clinic, Nutrition Services, Challenging Behavior Clinic, Positive Behavior Supports (PBS) and TEAM Clinic.The primary mission of the Center for Child Health and Development is: advancing the health, development, and well-being of children at risk or who have developmental disabilities and supporting their families through the provision of: (1) exemplary clinical service; (2) interdisciplinary leadership training; (3) outreach training and technical assistance and (4) collaborative academic researchA unique component of the Center for Child Health and Development is the commitment to fulfill the mission to advance the health and well-being of children with developmental disabilities and their children across the state of Kansas, including rural and other under-served or un-served areas and populations. In collaboration with other agencies, the Center for Child Health and Development teams make outreach trips several times a year to serve Kansas children and their families. Direct and consultative health services are also provided to remote locations by interactive telemedicine clinics originating at the Kansas City campus. Another feature of the health clinics is the connection to a university that promotes advancement of understanding developmental disabilities through ongoing research by faculty and trainees. According to the individual and family need, the interdisciplinary teams are comprised of two or more discipline professionals including: developmental behavioral pediatrician, psychologist, nurse practitioner, physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech language pathologist, dietician, social worker, audiologist, special educator and family faculty educator. Additionally, students and trainees of respective disciplines contribute to the team process under the mentorship of a discipline supervisor. The expected benefits of the KU Center for Child Health and Development clinical health services are improved health care for children as a result of this comprehensive interdisciplinary approach, specially trained health professionals entering the field of developmental disabilities equipped with leadership skills to impact systems change and discovery of knowledge through research.
Kansas University Center for Child Health and Development (formerly Center on Developmental Disabilities)	The Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities has a rich history of research, model development, policy development, outreach, training, technical assistance and advocacy with regard to and in support of people with developmental disabilities and their families. KUCDD has been effective for more than 30 years because of strong, nationally visible leadership, strong university and state support and collaboration, and a network of principal investigators and researchers who are recognized leaders in their discipline specialties. With the advent of the new century, the KUCDD is again positioned to achieve the Administration on Developmental Disabilities requirements for University Centers of Excellence to provide leadership in, advise Federal, State, and community policymakers about, and promote opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities to exercise self-determination, be independent, be productive, and be integrated and included in all facets of community life. The new overall director of KUCDD, Dr. Michael Wehmeyer, has extensive experience in the field of developmental disabilities and has an international reputation in research, model development and other activities to promote self-determination for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. KUCDD?s three sites, at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, the KU Main Campus in Lawrence, and in Parsons, have strong leadership (Travis Thompson, Michael Wehmeyer, David Lindeman, respectively) and contribute uniquely to the overall mission of KUCDD, creating a whole that is, genuinely, greater than the sum of its parts. KUCDD benefits from its capacity to leverage resources through grants and contracts from its 40 core and 60 affiliated faculty and its working relationship with other KU research centers. The Center is situated in the internationally visible Schiefelbusch Institute on Life Span Studies, directed by Dr. Steven Warren. LSI is the largest research center at the University of Kansas and is the home for KUCDD as well as research centers such as the Beach Center on Disability, the Juniper Gardens Children?s Project, and the Research and Training Center on Independent Living. Moreover, KUCDD is affiliated with the KU Department of Special Education which in April 2002 was, for the 8th consecutive year, named the #1 graduate program in special education in the country by U.S. News and World Reports. This proposal outlines a comprehensive five-year plan to achieve the ADD mission for UCEs, with major goals and objectives identified in eleven areas: inclusive communities; assistive technology; family supports; early childhood services; inclusive schools; high-school adult-life transitions; communication and language disorders; challenging behaviors; social policy; cultural diversity; and UCE core activities. These comprehensive goals incorporate activities across all ADD core areas and include training, service, technical assistance, and research and demonstration activities. KUCDD will be able to achieve these goals both because of the considerable opportunities for collaboration within KU but also because of the extensive collaboration within the state with the Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities, the Kansas Protection and Advocacy agency, and other entities that constitute the Kansas Developmental Disabilities Network. The proposal describes the KUCDD commitment to consumer-directed and controlled services and supports; promoting and enhancing self-determination and self-advocacy; supporting families and promoting a better quality of life for individuals and families; linking technology to people who can use it; promoting inclusive schools and community integration and inclusion; providing high-quality, consumer-responsive medical supports; providing interprofessional training opportunities for workers in the field and graduate students; and conducting high quality research upon which to build treatments and interventions. The KUCDD project evaluation is comprehensive and focused on multiple levels on ensuring consumer satisfaction. KUCDD has been and will continue to be responsive to needs identified in the state by primary stakeholders in the developmental disability system, and it is from this grassroots focus that the next 5-year plan of action has been developed.
ArtReach Program	Collaborative project between the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art and the Center for Child Health and Development at KU Medical Center. Four free workshops for children with and without developmental disabilities. The objective is to provide opportunities for self-expression and communication through the visual arts. Each hands-on workshop is designed for a particlar age group and relates to specific works on view at the Kemper Museum. Students are encouraged to create two works in each workshop. One work from each workshop will be included at a student art exhibition on view at the Center for Child Health and Development's Synergy ArtSpace. Unique opportunity for children with developmental disabilites to participate in an integrated workshop with instruction and support from the arts community.
Prevalence of Developmental Disabilities Among Children with Epilepsy in Rural Populations	Epilepsy is one of the most common disabling neurological disorders, but there are significant gaps in our knowledge about childhood epilepsy and associated comorbid conditions, including developmental disabilities. The extent to which these disorders exist in rural populations, especially among children, has not been fully assessed. The proposed study will assess the prevalence of epilepsy and secondary disabilities among children in a low-income rural setting. This information is important for policy makers and health care, education, and mental health providers that serve these children in identifying risk factors and planning and providing appropriate services.Long-Term Goal: To broaden knowledge of the epidemiology of epilepsy and determine the frequency of associated secondary disabilities among children of Midwestern rural, impoverished, predominantly White, low-income populations.Specific Objectives: 1. to ascertain all cases of epilepsy among children 0-17 years of age in nine rural Kansas counties. This will be accomplished through case identification, followed by a primary consensus review conducted by two epileptologists and an epidemiologist to determine classification, followed by a family interview to gain additional information on secondary conditions, medical treatment, access to care and quality of life, and then followed by a final consensus review to assimilate all information. 2. to determine how epilepsy is associated with secondary developmental disabilities. This will be accomplished by data analysis establishing an epidemiologic assessment of epilepsy and then associated secondary conditions. Both analyses will include epilepsy types, syndromes, etiologies, assessment of stress and quality of life, and access to and quality of care.
Kansas Inservice Training System (KITS): Preschool	This project is designed to meet the continuing need for a comprehensive statewide inservice training and technical assistance system for early childhood special education professionals, paraprofessionals, related services professionals and parents of preschool children with disabilities in the State of Kansas. The project will continue, expand, and enhance the inservice training and technical assistance opportunities by providing and supporting collaborative training and technical assistance activities on a comprehensive statewide basis. The project will provide training and technical assistance to preschool and early childhood programs in the state, for children with disabilities (Part B, Section 619 of IDEA). Additionallty, parents and staff of agencies collaborating with those preschool and early childhood programs will be afforded opportunities to be involved with training and technial assistance activities. Professional development needs will be addressed at three levels of training - state, regional, and individual. This will be accomplished through needs assessment for the identification of the statewide priorities, regional needs, and for implementation of technical assistance services developed in concert with Individual Development Plans of professionals as appropriate. The project's goals will be completed through activities such as a summer institute, dissemination of information through a quarterly newsletter, provision of inservice training, provision of agency and individual technical assistance, development of new teacher and technical assistance packets for practitioners in the field, and management of the identification of exemplary practices in the state. Further, the program will continue to build the statewide early childhood resource center. This center will house materials for professionals and families to access in support of their program or individual needs as well as support through internet searches of information. These materials are also accessible through the internet from across the state, which facilitates the interaction of identifying resource materials with needs of the state, specific agencies, or individuals.Finally, this program will continue to support and utilize existing structures and opportunities for staff development currently occurring throughout the state thorugh collaborative linkages with other agencies, programs, organizations, and projects in the field of Early Childhood Education.
Kansas Inservice Training System (KITS): Infant/Toddler Expansion	This project will continue support for the KITS project to include training and technical assistance for staff and programs providing early intervention services to infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. The continued growth and development of a comprehensive statewide inservice system, addressing the training and technical assistance needs of infant/toddler and early intervention professionals, paraprofessionals, related services personnel and families in the State of Kansas, is essential to assure quality services. Therefore, this project will continue to support a variety of collaborative training and technical assistance activities on a comprehensive statewide basis. The project will provide training and technical assistance to the early intervention programs (infant/toddler local lead agency for Part C of IDEA) in the state. Additionally, parents and staff of agency networks collaborating with those programs will be afforded opportunities to be involved with training and technical assistance activities. Professional and support personnel development needs will be addressed at three levels of training - state, regional, and individual. This will be accomplished through collaborative needs assessment with the state lead agency (Kansas Department of Health and Environment) for the identification of the statewide priorities, regional needs, and for implementation of technical assistance services developed in concert with Individual Development Plans of professionals as appropriate. The project's goals will be completed through activities such as a summer institute, dissemination of information, provision of inservice training and provision of agency and individual technical assistance. Finally, this program will continue to support and utilize existing structures and opportunities for staff development currently occurring throughout the state through collaborative linkages with other agencies, programs, organizations, and projects in the field of early intervention and early childhood.
Active Treatment Training Program	The purpose of this project is to provide training to personnel in Kansas ICF/MR facilities serving individuals with developmental disabilities. This training is intended to promote the implementation and evaluation of active treatment programs for all residents of these facilities. In addition to collaborative training and support services provided directly by the staff of this project, this contract supports special topic consultations and workshops by national leaders in the fireld of developmental disabilities. The topics and consultants for these activities are selected on the basis of specific needs identifiedf by the participating ICF/MRs relevant to the providion of quality services to the residents in their facilities.
Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities	The Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities (KUCDD) has a rich history of research, model development, policy development, outreach, training, technical assistance and advocacy with regard to and in support of people with developmental disabilities (DD) and their families. KUCDD has been effective for more than 35 years because of strong, nationally visible leadership, strong university and state support and collaboration, and a network of PIs and researchers who are recognized leaders in their discipline specialties. The overall director of KUCDD, Michael Wehmeyer, Ph.D., has extensive experience in the field of DD and has an international reputation in research, model development and other activities to promote self-determination for people with intellectual and DD. KUCDD's three sites, at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City, the KU Main Campus in Lawrence, and in Parsons, have strong leadership (Chet Johnson, M.D., Michael Wehmeyer, Ph.D., David Lindeman, Ph.D.) and contribute uniquely to the overall mission of KUCDD. KUCDD benefits from its capacity to leverage resources through grants and contracts from its more than 50 affiliated faculty and its working relationship with other KU research centers. The KUCDD is organizationally housed in the internationally visible Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies (LSI), directed by Dr. John Columbo. LSI is the largest research center at KU and is the home for KUCDD as well as research centers such as the Beach Center on Disability, the Juniper Gardens Children's Project, and the Research and Training Center on Independent Living. Moreover, KUCDD is affiliated with the KU Department of Special Education which has been consistently named the #1 public graduate program in special education in the country by U.S. News and World Reports.During the current 5 year period, the KUCDD is involved in a a comprehensive five-year plan to achieve the ADD mission for UCEDs, with major goals and objectives identified in eleven areas: inclusive communities; assistive technology; family supports; early childhood services; inclusive schools; high-school adult-life transitions; communication and language disorders; challenging behaviors; social policy; cultural diversity; and UCE core activities. These comprehensive goals incorporate activities across all ADD core areas and include training, service, technical assistance, and research and demonstration activities. KUCDD will be able to achieve these goals both because of the considerable opportunities for collaboration within KU but also because of the extensive collaboration within the state with the Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities, the Kansas Protection and Advocacy agency, and other entities that constitute the Kansas Developmental Disabilities Network. The proposal describes the KUCDD commitment to consumer-directed and controlled services and supports; promoting and enhancing self-determination and self-advocacy; supporting families and promoting a better quality of life for individuals and families; linking technology to people who can use it; promoting inclusive schools and community integration and inclusion; providing high-quality, consumer-responsive medical supports; providing interprofessional training opportunities for workers in the field and graduate students; and conducting high quality research upon which to build treatments and interventions.
Kansas College of Direct Support	The College of Direct Support online training is available to all persons supporting individuals with developmental disabilities who receive funding from the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.The online feature enables individuals to receive training at any time from any site equipped with a computer connected to the internet.
Tertiary Intervention: The K-I	A model demonstration center with schools and implementation in Kansas and Illinois is proposed that will show a) how and when resources and systems are organized to ensure the success of all students in accordance with a response to intervention (RtI) logic model, and b) how individual supports and interventions for students with complex needs can be more effectively/efficiently provided. Specifically, the Center proposes to strategically apply validated approaches using a problem-solving rubric that fully encompasses and integrates school-wide positive behavior support and wraparound, a school mental health approach developed in Illinois and replicated widely in other states. Goals of the K-I Center include: a) a rigorous but replicable professional development system integrated into districts and schools; b) a school level, data-based decision system; c) a comprehensive, national dissemination process; d) a range of validated products for replication and expansion; e) a multi-tiered process that includes systematic application of person and family centered techniques; and f) a fully integrated evaluation system designed for easy access and use by teachers and families as well as district and state implementers. Center resources will be strategically applied to ensure implementation of tertiary systems in demonstration sites already implementing school-wide approaches but struggling with the shift from categorical approaches into RtI logic driven integrated systems. The readiness of schools and districts to rapidly adopt model practices, particularly in Illinois, will be leveraged to enable the proposed Center to more than double RFA requirements over four years. The established research and dissemination ability of the K.U. Beach Center and the broad scope and high quality of implementation of the IL PBIS Network provide the unique blend of leadership experience and capacity needed to firmly anchor evidence-based tertiary interventions into schoolwide practices through reliably measured systems of intervention.
Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behaviorial Interventions and Supports	This proposal requests five years of support to continue and expand a national technical assistance center on Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS). From 1998 to 2003 OSEP funded a technical assistance center that has developed, implemented and evaluated school-wide positive behavioral support (PBS) in over 1800 schools across 20 states throughout the United States. The result has been documented that schools (a) are able to adopt school-wide systems of PBS, and (b) can sustain implementation of school-wide PBS. More importantly, implementation of school-wide PBS has been associated with (a) reductions in office discipline referrals (20-60%), (b) imporved school safety, (c) imporved effectiveness of high-intensity interventions for individual students, (d) improved academic performance, and (e) increased accuracy and efficiency of sustained systems-change implementation.
University of Kansas National Response to Intervention (RTI) Leadership Preparation Program: Improving School Outcomes for Students with Significant	Key Collaborators: The University of Kansas Beach Center on Disability in conjunction with the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning (CRL) propose the Response to Intervention (RtI) Leadership Preparation Program. This collaboration will ensure the development of five doctoral leaders with extensive knowledge of RtI and its application to students with significant disabilities in urban-core settings. The two collaborating Centers offer a national reputation for supporting students with diverse academic and behavioral needs. It is through this unique partnership that the selected doctoral candidates will have access to a comprehensive array of professional opportunities including; 1) a doctoral program (including specialized course work, intensive field experiences and research applications) focused specifically on meeting the needs of children with disabilities from diverse backgrounds through the use of RtI practices, (2) a research program that reflects rigorous application of tertiary level interventions through the Department of Education awarded National Center on Tertiary Level Interventions (the K-I Center) located at the Beach Center on Disability, and (3) practices that promote a comprehensive knowledge base in the areas of access to the general curriculum, evidence-based pedagogy and practices, collaborative teaching supports through the RtI process, policies and federal mandates. The need for well trained personnel in special education in urban-core, multicultural schools is evident. Special education leadership is needed which the competencies to recruit, train and provide follow-up professional development to new teachers in urban-core settings employing response to intervention systems on a school-wide basis.Scientific Rigor: RtI has emerged as the preeminent pedagogy for effective outcomes for students with diverse learning needs. It is through this multi-tiered system of support that students receive ongoing monitoring of their progress in response to academic and behavioral interventions (Brown-Chidsey & Steege 2005). The National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE, 2006) summarized six areas of ongoing research that have enhanced the emergence of RtI in practice over the past two decades: (a) scientifically based curricula and instruction;(b) other related multi-tiered models; (c) progress monitoring and formative evaluation; (d) analysis and remediation of academic achievement problems; (e) functional behavioral assessment; and (f) standard treatment protocol interventions. First the emergence of scientifically based curricula and instruction has provided grounding for the data-based decision processes underlying RtI. RtI is a three-tiered model (Vaughn, 2003), in which layers of supported instruction are provided over time in response to child need. Population: The proposed project will prepare five carefully selected doctoral candidates who are seeking opportunities to train teachers and conduct research on methods to support children with disabilities in urban-core settings focused primarily on students with diverse cultural needs. The Beach Center has a long reputation of not only supporting children with disabilities from diverse economic and cultural backgrounds, but additionally recruiting and sustaining diverse doctoral students including persons of color and who experience disabilities. Specifically doctoral students will have opportunities to have field experiences in urban core settings including Kansas City and Topeka where Beach Center research and training activities have been ongoing for a decade.Proposed Project Outcomes: This project will: (a) recruit 5 doctoral students with diverse backgrounds and talents, including those with disabilities; (b) provide a doctoral leadership program focused on specialized curricula, extensive urban field experiences, ongoing research application grounded in RtI pedagogy and science; and (c) ensure fidelity of core doctoral training components thorough formative and summative evaluation procedures. Upon completion of this comprehensive professional effort, in which over 68% of the annual funding is designated directly for doctoral support, the five students upon receiving their Doctorate of Philosophy in Special Education will emerge as national leaders, prepared specifically to secure positions that will enable them to prepare highly qualified teachers skilled in RtI applications in urban-core, multicultural schools and to conduct rigorous high quality research directed to applications of RtI methods to meet the needs of children with disabilities.
Coordination of Services for Respite Care, Southeast KS	Southeast Kansas Respite Services gives parents/caregivers of individuals with mental retardation, developmental disabilities, Alzheimers, and other special needs, a break or rest from the constant care that is required by their loved one. This break or rest is made possible by matching trained care providers with families. The provider goes into the home to care for the individual with special needs so that parents/caregivers can get away for a few hours or even overnight.
Laboratory Models of Maladaptive Escape Behaviors	Our long-term objectives are to develop a validated animal and human laboratory model, and in turn, treatment strategies, based on understanding the environmental factors that precipitate aberrant behaviors in persons with mental retardation (MR). Both humans and animals show prolonged, counterproductive interruptions in behavior (pausing) when relatively rich conditions of positive reinforcement transition to relatively lean conditions of positive reinforcement. When an escape response is available, subjects escape during these rich-lean transitions, indicating that this context is aversive. Clinical research has established escape as a primary motive for aberrant behavior, but has not illuminated the processes that render normally benign activities aversive. Pausing as maladaptive escape may provide a functional analogue to aberrant behavior, and conditions that generate long pausing may predict aberrant behavior. The proposed research will test the utility of this conceptualization in predicting the occurrence of stereotyped and self-injurious behaviors in persons with MR. In keeping with the translational nature of the research program, studies will be conducted in three contexts that span laboratory, naturalistic, and clinical settings. Three laboratory studies are proposed for each of two CAB topographies (self injury/aggression and stereotypy). Each laboratory study will be replicated under more naturalistic procedures. We then propose to study the effects of rich-to-lean transitions under conditions involving tasks of direct clinical relevance to the subjects. This research strategy is designed to better understand the behavioral processes that may provide aversive stimulation for escape motivated CAB, and begin to use this knowledge for developing treatment strategies.
Recombinative Generalization of Within-syllable Units in MR	Many individuals with mental retardation read at levels below what might be expected based on other cognitive skills. Further, reading instruction historically has emphasized sight words, and this emphasis limits reading vocabulary to words that have been taught directly. Thus, there is a critical need for effective methods to teach word-attack skills to this difficult-to-teach population. The long-term goal of this research program is to develop computerized instructional programming to teach skills that are known to provide a foundation for successful instruction in word-attack skills. The present proposal takes a step towards that goal by addressing the critical early skills of phonological awreness and the development of generalized sound-print relations. Should we discover ways to develop these skills largely via computer, the efficiency, fidelity, and cost-effectivess with which these skills could be taught would skyrocket.The scientific foundation for our work lies in the conclusion of the National Reading Panel that phonological awareness training that involves linking letters to sounds is more effective than training that is limited to the manipulation of speech sounds. Thus, we plan to study the development of these skills using a word-construction task, in which the participants build words by selecting individual letters from a pool of letters. These procedures simultaneously promote the development of phonological awareneness and the concept that print maps sound. This approach to providing foundational skills of early reading instruction is an unstudied approach to generative reading in individuals with MR. If the success that we have had to date continues, we not only will produce a fine-grained analysis of reading difficulties in this population, but also will develop a set of evidence-based procedures that will have near-immediate utility for teaching skills that may dramatically increase the success of reading instruction.
Assistive Technology for Kansans	Purpose of Assistive Technology for Kansans: Increase statewide access of assistive technology devices and services to people of all ages and abilities. Kansans of all ages with any type of disability or health condition can request information/referral, evaluation, technical assistance or training supports by calling 1-800-KAN-DO-IT.Assistive Technology for Kansans have five regional Assistive Technology Access sites that have assistive technology specialists, funding specialists, access to technology devices, and contacts with experts in all areas of technology. Areas of assistive technology covered: computer access devices and software, activities of daily living, assisted listening, communication, education/learning, environmental control, leisure/play, and mobility.The project is guided by an Executive Advisory Board composed of consumers and disability agency and organization representatives. This group reviews barriers to technology access and suggests strategies for changing pracitices, policies, regulations or laws to increase access to technology devices and services. The project's legislative and policy analysis component addresses issues at the local, state, and national levels.ATK Services:5 Access Sites across the state, provide AT services to people with disabilities of all ages in KansasTechnical consultation in selecting appropriate devices to meet an individual?s needHands-on demonstration of ATAn equipment loan program with more than 12,000 items that can be borrowed on a trial basisFunding resource information ? assistance locating a funding source for a deviceAdvocacy for individuals & their families on their rights to AT servicesProvide assistive technology evaluation for entitites such as Vocational Rehabilitation, Veteran's Administration, Worker's Compensation, Infant-Toddler Services and AgrAbilityPresentations to groups on specific AT topicsRelated community resource information & referralProvide home modification evaluations for individuals who qualify for the Kansans Accessibility Modification Program (KAMP)ATK Serves: Children, adults, & older adults with disabilities & their familiesOlder adults experiencing difficulty with daily activitiesProfessionals in various fields, i.e. health care, social services, or educationEmployers and employees in private and public settings
Kansas Equipment Exchange	This collaborative project with Kansas Medicaid attempts to increase access to durable medical equipment by developing a statewide recycling/reuse program. The project uses a regional network of civic, religious, and disability organizations to redistribute durable medical equipment purchased by Kansas Medicaid when the equipment is no longer needed by the original user. The Kansas Equipment Exchange program (KEE) is designed to network regional resources to: 1) facilitate prompt pick-up of unused equipment, 2) safely recondition and/or refurbish the equipment, 3) match the available equipment to customer needs and, 4) redistribute the used equipment, at no cost, to Medicaid beneficiaries, Medicaid eligibles or those likely to become eligible for Medicaid.1. Initial Equipment Acquisition Details: Equipment purchased with Medicaid funds is marked with a barcode sticker and tracked through an inventory control program. The barcode would provide instructions to call the Equipment Exchange program toll-free number (1-866-666-1470) if the equipment is not being used or no longer needed.Medicaid automatically informs the Equipment Exchange coordinator when purchase of selected types of durable medical equipment is approved. At the time the customer receives the equipment the Medicaid DME provider: 1) attaches the barcode sticker to the authorized equipment, 2) gives the customer a card describing the Equipment Exchange program, and 3) faxes the registration form including the customer?s name, address and phone number to the Equipment Exchange coordinator. The equipment details and contact information are entered into a database for tracking purposes. The Equipment Exchange coordinator contacts individuals within 1-3 months of their receipt of the equipment to determine if additional assistance is needed to gain maximum benefit from the equipment.2. Equipment Pick-up, Clean-up, and Relocation Network: The five regional Assistive Technology Access Sites and their network partners participate in equipment recovery and redistribution efforts. Each Access Site works with a minimum of ten organizations within their region (with at least five faith based or non-disability organizations such as Ministerial Alliance Assistance Programs, Red Cross, Salvation Army, Lions Clubs, Elks, etc.) to pick-up and clean-up equipment for their region. The goal is to have a broad base of support for the Equipment Exchange program and to involve groups that may currently be providing equipment closets for items like canes, walkers, and commodes. By involving disability and non-disability organizations the Equipment Exchange program reaches beyond the network of Independent Living Centers and creates new partnerships, provides coverage for an entire region, and quickly connects with persons who have disabilities as well as those who do not think of themselves as having a disability but who need durable medical equipment.Practices are in place to ensure that items are clean and safe before they are redistributed. Members of the regional networks clean and sanitize all equipment and determine if maintenance or refurbishing is necessary before placing the item with a new customer. AT Access Site staff repair items as appropriate. Arrangements are made for refurbishing from certified equipment providers on an item-per-item basis when more advanced or certified repair is needed. The Equipment Exchange Coordinator manages a refurbishing fund and authorize all refurbishing costs before the repair is conducted.All persons involved in the clean-up/sanitization and maintenance/ repair process receive training on infection control and safety. Network participantsare required to demonstrate mastery of infection control and maintenance procedures.Specific details regarding pick-up, clean-up, storage, and delivery would be determined on a region by region basis to take advantage of local resources. For example, in southeastern Kansas local civic organizations assist with the pick-up of equipment but that equipment would be brought to a central location for clean-up and redistribution. In other regions, the equipment is placed in multiple sites agreeable to the network members. The intent is to give the regions latitude to develop a plan which maximizes use of regional resources and develops new resources as needed in order to: 1) quickly retrieve the equipment and get it ready for reuse, 2) efficiently move the equipment on to customers, 3) not store equipment for more than 90 days, and 4) operate the program in a cost-effective manner.3. Matching Equipment to Identified Needs: The Equipment Exchange coordinator maintains an equipment wanted list from calls to the program and inquiries posted on the Equipment Exchange website (www.equipmentexchange.ku.edu). The equipment needed list (but not names of individuals) is posted on this website. The coordinator uses this list to match available equipment to new customers.4. Equipment Enters Into the Equipment Exchange Program: When the original equipment is no longer needed Medicaid customers or their representatives call the program coordinator through the toll-free number. The Coordinator checks the equipment needed lists and contacts the AT Access Site in the region to arrange for pick-up. Directions for clean-up, refurbishing, and redistribution are given at that time.If the item was not scheduled for immediate redistribution, availability is listed on the project website. The website is fully accessible and links to disability and non-disability websites that serve the state.Data collected will provide information regarding: number of items in the equipment inventory, additional assistance needed, items entered into the reuse program, items requested, number of items redistributed, benefit to consumers, and benefit to Medicaid.
Assistive Technology for Infants and Toddlers	Kansas Infant Toddler Services contracts with Assistive Technology for Kansans to develop the capacity of local service providers to provide assistive technology services to families of infants and toddlers with disabilities. This relationship has been ongoing for thirteen years now. This year's focus is on providing regional training to local providers and family members on a topics identified by those populations, and loan of equipment to families with infants and toddlers with disabilities. Assistive technology resources remain scarce throughout the state so the collaborative services available from the AT Access Sites and additional supports provided from the partnership between Tiny K and Assistive Technology for Kansans are even more important this year.Families and local providers help direct activities by providing input into training topics for regional workshops, selecting new equipment for the loan program, and providing evaluation after participating in any project activity. Over 200 infants and toddlers with disabilities receive direct services and two-thirds of the local provider networks were active in the project in the past year.
HRSA Integrated Systems grant	The multiple and fragmented service delivery systems for Kansas children and youth with special health care needs are difficult to access or navigate for many families. The goals fo this project are: 1) strengthen parent/family/professional partnerships through education, technology, and financial investment to support culturally diverse family/youth involvement at all levels of decision-making, 2) enhance access and services received in a Medical Home, 3) address transition to adulthood by incorporating into practices and policies transition supports for youth/young adults with disabilities, and 4) build system capacity and sustainability.The project will develop an on-line modeule for youth focusing on health care transition and the use of technology to communicate medical information.
Reducing the Incidence of Obesity in Adults with Developmental Disabilities in Kansas	Seventy-nine overweight adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) participated in a weight loss intervention. Seventy-three individuals completed the 6-month diet phase. The intervention emphasized consumption of high volume, low calorie foods and beverages, including meal-replacement shakes. Lower-calorie frozen entrees were recommended to control portion size. An optional walking activity was encouraged. Participants attended monthly meetings in which a small amount of cash was exchanged for self-recorded intake and exercise records completed on picture-based forms. Average weight loss was 6.0 kg or 6.3% of baseline weight at 6 months, with weight loss shown by 64/73. Those completing a 6-month follow-up phase showed weight loss of 9.4% of baseline. Increased choice and control are discussed as possible contributors to individual success.
Family Employment Awareness Training	FEAT's mission is to increase expectations and awareness of families regarding the possibilities for the member with a disability to obtain meaningful and satisfying work in the family's community and thereby achieve the national policy goal of full or partial economic self-sufficiency. The goals fo the project are: 1) To increase families' great expectations and awareness of the possiblities for employment; 2) to teach families how to access Kansas' employment-related resources; 3) to assist families in developing self-advocacy and problem-solving skills to facilitate obtaining and maintaining employment; and 4) to build capacity across the state through a sustainable 'train-the-trainer' modle that will promote high expectations, awareness, and skills with regard to employment for all Kansans with disabilities. The training will include one day of classroom training and a half day field trip visiting other families and individuals experiencing successful outcomes. Family represesntatives will provide additional trainings and technical assistance in their localities. The training materials will be made available on DVD.
Young Women with Disabilities Take Charge: A Gender Equitable model for Expanding Job Options Through Self-Directed Employment	The purpose of the project is to develop and evaluate a gender equitable self-directed education to employment model to enable young women with disabilities to direct their own education and transition paths and gain skills, experience, and support in nontraditional vocational areas and to achieve competitive employment outcomes in their chosen careers. Based upon feedback from the girls and teachers, an on-line curriculum was developed to offer young women an eight-step, sequential process that systematically progresses through intended employment or postsecondary outcomes. The curriculum is currently being field-tested in 21 schools. A middle school version focusing on transitioning to high school is being pilot-tested. The curriculum is accessed through the university blackboard system. The final product will be made available to a larger audience through a web-based design. Camp KU is an added feature and favoriite of the girls.
Influencing Outcomes for Children Who Are Deaf-Blind With Cochlear Implants	The number of children who are deaf-blind and receiving cochlear implants are increasing each year. As technology changes and research impacts candidacy, implants are being conducted at younger ages. This project will focus on these younger children. Children between six-months and seven years will be targeted for participation. Families from rural, suburban, and urban areas will be recruited. All of these children have severe vision and severe/profound hearing impairments, often with concomitant disabilities. Preliminary data from research being conducted with children who are multi-handicapped, including deaf-blind, shows that the variability in performance remains high. Evaluating the success of cochlear implantation with all children requires consideration of many intervening variables, such as (a) age at implant, (b) duration of implant use, (b) rehabilitation/intervention services, and (c) parent support. The project proposes to address a number of these variables in order to improve the communication, language and speech outcomes for young children who are deaf-blind. Objectives will include:1. Collaboration with State Deaf-Blind projects, early childhood agencies, implant centers to identify family volunteers for participation in the research and intervention study. 2. Development of a systematic data collection system to examine the communication behaviors of caregivers and their children during natural occurring routines. 3. Identification of evidence-based practices from the extant literature base regarding auditory and language development for children with deafness and cochlear implantation in order to develop effective intervention strategies with children who have deaf-blindness.4. Implementation of a research agenda to address three questions: (A) What effect does age at implant have on child outcomes, (B) What are the differences in the mother?s (or father?s) communication interactive behaviors before and after implantation? (C) What are the effects of individualized auditory intervention, with delayed support prompts, on child communication outcomes? 5. Development of materials and products that are of high quality, useful, and relevant for families and early childhood service providers.6. Development of analysis procedures and reporting formats.7. Dissemination of information about the project?s products, activities and outcomes.8. Evaluation of project objectives and activities to demonstrate effectiveness and impact. Preliminary data on children who have dual vision and hearing impairments (deaf-blind) and who have cochlear implants seem to indicate that not only are there great discrepancies in the outcomes for these children, but there are also great discrepancies in the availability of rehabilitation and parent training to influence more positive child outcomes. The intended impact of this project would be to demonstrate that effective communication strategies in the context of daily home routines can positively and consistently affect post-implant communication and language outcomes for children who are deaf-blind. Products will include inventories, individualized assessment strategies, and fact sheets based on effective practices.
Expanding Assistive Technology (AT) Reutilization Efforts to Include Organizational, Navigational, and High Cost Technologies	Expanding Assistive Technology (AT) Reutilization Efforts to Include Organizational, Navigational, and High Cost TechnologiesThe Kansas AT Reuse Program, a statewide program to recover, refurbish, and reassign durable medical equipment and AT, is operated by the Statewide AT Act Program, Assistive Technology for Kansans. The Kansas AT Reuse Program has been in operation for 3 years and has refurbished and reassigned $1.1 million of high quality durable medical equipment at no cost to Kansans with disabilities. After 16 months of operation the program was cost-neutral and at 30 months of operation the program was reassigning over $500,000 in a 6-month period. This model program proposes to meet the needs of an underrepresented group, persons who have learning, organizational, navigational, and/or cognitive impairments by expanding reutilization efforts to include collection, refurbishment, and reassignment of handheld digital and converged mobile organizational and navigational technologies. The applicant will develop partnerships with major manufacturers such as Palm, Dell, Garmin, and Tom Tom in addition to conducting targeted equipment drives focusing on businesses and individuals using this technology. The applicant proposes to address the barriers of limited reutilization inventory, program cost effectiveness (Return of Investment), and program sustainability by developing strategies to significantly increase recovery and reassignment of high cost, high cost and lightly used, and bariatric equipment. Medical and rehabilitation programs will be included in efforts to increase recovery of targeted equipment. Potential funders of high cost technologies will be identified and Return of Investment for underwriting program components will be calculated and shared. Recognizing the national and international problem of safe and environmentally responsible disposal of electronic waste (e-waste) and the importance of this issue to collection and disposal of equipment for AT reutilization programs, the applicant will conduct activities addressing ?high tech trash.? State and international laws (there are no national laws) will be analyzed, experts in e-waste will be identified and consulted, and partnerships with environmental agencies, organizations, and industry representatives in the state will be developed. A plan for collecting and disposing of AT without violating laws and in a safe and environmentally responsible manner will be developed and implemented in ?Pass It On? equipment drives.The applicant will identify and meet with reutilization programs operating in the state. Information about programs and available inventory will be collected. A directory, with electronic links to program websites when available, will be posted on the Kansas AT Reuse website and at other sites as recommended by the group. Project staff will work with local, regional and state Emergency Planning staff to determine how to most effectively link this information with state emergency planning efforts. A statewide plan incorporating locating and dispersing assistive technology during a time of crisis will be developed.Transportation and distribution of equipment will be analyzed and new methods for reducing costs and delivery time will be implemented. Return of Investment regarding utilizing volunteers in comparison to other pick-up and delivery methods will be computed. And finally, evidenced-based programmatic and cost-effective strategies will be identified and shared with the National AT Reutilization Technical Assistance Center and other reutilization programs.
The Inclusive Community Garden: Food, Exercise, Friends and Maybe Money	Inclusive Community Gardens: Food, Exercise, Friends, and Maybe MoneyProgram staff will work with at least five communities per year in establishing inclusive community garden programs to provide recreational services to 150 persons of all disabilities and all ages per year. Communities with established community garden efforts as well as with communities/entities that are establishing new community garden programs will be recruited to participate in this innovative project. Community gardening is not a new concept but if designed to include persons with disabilities, inclusive community gardening can provide recreational activities and related experiences that aid in employment, mobility, socialization, independence, and community integration. Through this effort persons with disabilities across the state will have access to community garden programs that provide innovative gardening education and supports to help all people garden regardless of the disability or health limitation. In addition to access to many examples of inclusive gardening strategies, a range of adaptive gardening tools will be available through the statewide Assistive Technology Program for gardeners to ?Try Before They Buy.? Program staff will work with local garden coordinators, master gardeners, 4-H Programs, USDA County Extension Agents, and others to collect strategies and offer educational programs through the winter months so that maximum use is made of the growing season and expert horticultural advice is obtained. Staff will work with local community garden programs to ensure that policies and practices support participation by persons with disabilities. At present there is little evidence available of persons with disabilities participating in community gardening efforts occurring across the country. The project will work with 150 persons with disabilities in five communities per year across the state. Over the three year period of time it is anticipated that 450 persons with disabilities and approximately 1,350 family members and friends will be impacted from these recreational and employment activities. The project is specifically designed to include youth with disabilities and persons with disabilities from traditionally underrepresented groups. The benefits of participation in community gardening go beyond access to nutritional food, exercise, and new knowledge. The informational exchange and social interactions lead to improved mental health, feelings of being connected to the local community, leadership skills, and possibly new employment contacts and opportunities. However, the applicant also recognizes that the recreational benefits of gardening should not be denied if the person with disabilities is not physically able to participate in the community gardening effort. Inclusive gardening materials, access to adapted gardening equipment, and access to informational exchanges through the gardening blog will be available to these individuals as well as to participants in the community gardening program.Local community garden coordinators will be recruited in the selected communities and will help to set up garden education opportunities, share innovative strategies, help answer garden questions and share knowledge by encouraging participation in the gardening blog, and help the program coordinator disseminate press releases and public awareness information. To further increase the likelihood of maximum participation by persons with disabilities, a gardening seed/plant stipend will be available to individuals completing the educational sessions. Ed Bell, a person with disabilities who has established a profitable strawberry business will consult with the program and with vocational rehabilitation counselors. Through this effort model community gardens with inclusive policies and practices will be in place across the state. Grant writing and sustainability initiatives will begin at the start of the program to further ensure continued access to inclusive community gardens after the federal funding has ended. Adapted tools will continue to be available for loan as long as the equipment is useful.
Assistive Technology for Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Customers	Assistive Technology for Kansans(ATK) will work with persons who are visually impaired or blind, other assistive technology experts, and technology vendors to identify and secure a range of independent living aids that will assist persons who are blind or visually impaired to be more independent in their home or community.ATK will provide access to basic, low cost independent living aids for people who are blind or visually impaired at no cost for individuals who receive public assistance through SSI, SSDI, Medicaid, Medicare or other state and federal assistance but are not interested or eligible for Kan-SAIL or VR Title I services.Additionally, ATK will provide information and referral to Kan-SAIL and VR Title I services when services are needed.
Kansas Alternative Finance Program	The Assistive Technology for Kansans project (ATK), coordinated by the University of Kansas at Parsons, and its non-profit partner, Kansas Assistive Technology Cooperative (KATCO) operate a financial loan program for the purchase of assistive technology devices and services necessary for independence, inclusion, learning, and employment. The program is directed by persons with disabilities and provides the financial guarantee necessary for personal financing of devices such as adapted vehicles, communication devices, hearing and vision aids, powered wheelchairs, scooters, and other mobility aids. Funding received in FY 2003 from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research Alternative Financing Mechanisms Program (CFDA 84.224C) will provide the funds necessary for this program to continue and will support the expansion of financing options. Program development activities include reviewing and implementing additional financing options that would result in increased consumer choice and control. The KATCO Advisory Board will review financing options for the Alternative Finance Program. The FY 2000 AFP loan program offered consumers access to a low-interest loan fund, a revolving loan fund, and a loan guarantee or insurance program. With the FY 2003 award, the KATCO Advisory Board will consider adding an interest buy-down program and a program operated by a partnership among private entities for the purchase, lease, or other acquisition of AT devices or AT services. Dissemination and Outreach efforts for the Alternative Finance programs will include public service announcements, media campaigns, informational booths at state and regional meetings, direct mailings, articles in newsletters, and presentations made to disability and non-disability groups. Assistive Technology providers and Durable Medical Equipment vendors will be involved in media outreach efforts and will be included in public awareness efforts. Data regarding applicant characteristics, device selection, impact of access to technology, and employment outcomes will be collected and shared with the national database. Information and outcomes will be shared with policymakers.
Use of Telemed in Diagnosing Autism-DOD Grant	Many families who live in rural areas do not have access to autism diagnostic services. this grant explored the possibility of using telemedicine for diagnosis using gold standard measures such as the ADOS and ADI. Also measured was diagnostic accuracy and parent satisfaction
Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training	the mission of this Center is bring together faculty, providers and parents who can impact research, training, and services in the state of kansas
Kansas Telework Program	The Assistive Technology for Kansans project (ATK), coordinated by the University of Kansas at Parsons, and its non-profit partner, Kansas Assistive Technology Cooperative (KATCO) will operate a Telework financial loan program for the purchase of assistive technology devices and services necessary for employment by distance. Funding for this program is available through the Rehabilitation Services Administration Access to Telework Fund Program (CFDA 84.235T). The Kansas Telework Program will be directed by persons with disabilities and will provide the financial guarantee necessary for personal financing of devices such as computer hardware and software, adapted peripherals, hearing and vision aids, and other devices necessary for work. The establishment of a Telework program provides a financial mechanism to develop employment opportunities and to support persons with disabilities in purchasing assistive technology devices and services needed to work from a remote site or at a telework center. The Kansas Telework program proposes to stimulate telework opportunities through the development of five competitive, year-long pilot telework projects. These projects will develop telework opportunities and report successful strategies to the Telework Advisory Board, Centers on Independent Living, Council on Developmental Disabilities, and other organizations. The KATCO Advisory Board has over 75% representation by persons with disabilities and has successfully directed the state Alternative Finance Program for the past three years. The KATCO Board will direct the development and operational efforts of the Kansas Telework Program. Program activities will focus on developing financial loan services and supports that make working by distance an employment option for Kansans who have disabilities. The Telework program recognizes that increased access to assistive technology can reduce or eliminate barriers to employment such as inadequate transportation, fatigue, and inaccessible work environments. The Kansas Telework program will consider a full range of financing options including: a low-interest loan fund, a revolving loan fund, a loan guarantee or insurance program, an interest buy-down program, and a program operated by a partnership among private entities for the purchase, lease, or other acquisition of AT devices or AT services. Dissemination and Outreach efforts for the Telework program will include public service announcements, media campaigns, informational booths at state and regional meetings, direct mailings, articles in newsletters, and presentations made to disability and non-disability groups. Information gained from operating the Telework pilot programs will be made available through these efforts. Employers, potential employers, assistive technology providers, and Durable Medical Equipment vendors will be involved in media outreach efforts and will be included in public awareness efforts. Data regarding applicant characteristics, device selection, impact of access to technology, and employment outcomes will be collected and shared with the national database. Information and outcomes will be shared with policymakers.
Research - KU DHA Outcomes Study	A Phase III Clinical Trial; randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled study of Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplementation (600 mg/day)in the last two trimesters of pregnancy. The specific aims of the project are 1) to determine whether maternal RBC plasma DHA can be significantly increased; 2) to assess the effect of DHA supplementation on duration of gestation; 3) to evaluate adverse events in women and infants in the treated and placebo groups; 4) to evaluate the effect of maternal DHA supplementation on visual evoded potential acuity in infancy; and 5) to evaluate the effect of DHA supplementation on the development of fundamental measures of cognitive function in infancy. This NIH funded research originates in Department of Dietetics but LEND faculty participates in interdisicplinary activities through interdepartmental agreement.
Reach Out and Read - CCHD	Reach Out and Read Kansas City is a program of the Reach Out and Read National Center. ROR is a non profit organization that promotes early literacy by giving out new books to children (ages 6 mo to 5 years of age) and advocates role modeling and advice to parents about the importance of reading to their children. Books are given to the children according to their developmental age level and are available in English, Spanish and several other languages.
Fort Leavenworth Project	The CCHD and Fort Leavenworth personnel determined that military families have great difficulty obtaining a diagnosis for their child who they suspect to have an autism spectrum disorder. Several meetings, which included high ranking military medical officers, parents of children with autism, and representatives of military family support programs shared their opinions and experiences. A town hall meeting and a focus group made up of military families gave families an opportunity to share their experiences with getting a diagnosis, finding services and supports. These dialoges will help to determine what type of training/services the CCHD can provide to the families, military doctors, and school personnel of the base. The goal is to help streamline the process for the families to get their children diagnosed, find servies, and to train doctors/nurses on the necessity of recognizing red flags for children on the spectrum.
Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Fellowship	The Developmental-Behavioral Fellowship at KUMED is an accredited 3-year training program for pediatric specialists in the discipline of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics. Dr. Kathryn Ellerbeck is the Program Director.
Determining the efficacy of the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction to improve secondary and transition outcomes for students with cognitive	Title: Determining the Efficacy of the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction to Improve Secondary and Transition Outcomes for Students with Cognitive DisabilitiesRFA Goal: Goal Two, Type BPurpose: To evaluate the efficacy of the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction on promote self-determination, access to the general education curriculum, achievement of academic and transition-related goals. Setting: Research will be conducted in high schools in Kansas and neighboring states randomly assigned to a treatment or control group. Sample: Participants will be 300 high school students with mental retardation or learning disabilities who meet selection criteria. We will recruit 25 high schools with at least 12 students per school. Research sites were selected to ensure diversity with regard to geography (urban, suburban, and rural, U.S. regions) and to traditionally underrepresented groups. Intervention: The Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction is a model of teaching to enable educators to teach students to self-direct instruction to achieve educationally valued goals and enhance self-determination. It can be implemented to teach academic or transition-related skills. Teachers link instruction on student-directed learning strategies to a self-regulated problem solving process to teach students to set educational goals, determine an action plan to achieve goals, and self-monitor and evaluate progress toward goals, revising the goal or plan as needed.Control: Participants will be randomly assigned to treatment or control group by high school. Schools in the control group will receive the intervention in the second project year.Research Method: The study will implement a cluster or group-randomized trial, modified equivalent control group time series design in which participants are assigned to the control or treatment groups by high school campus. Students in the control group will receive the treatment in the project?s second year.Measurement: We will assess self-determination using two normed measures at baseline and the end of each school year. We will measure goal attainment using Goal Attainment Scaling annually on academic and functional goals. We will measure access to the general curriculum using a PC-based classroom observation system for a subset of the sample at baseline and annually each intervention year. Data Analysis: Intervention efficacy analyses will utilize three techniques: Multi-Level Random Coefficients Modeling (aka HLM models) to examine differences between control and treatment participants as nested within teachers; multiple-group longitudinal comparison of individual differences among the key variables via structural equation modeling; latent growth curve estimates fit to key constructs to examine the concomitant patterns of change and growth among access, progress, and self-determination indicators and intra-individual change relations among key constructs.
Infant Mental Health: Program Evaluation	This project is aimed at evaluating infant mental health training and consultation model and certification in Kansas that was adopted from Michigan
Center for Child Health & Development Parent Advisory Group	The Center for Child Health and Development has long supported the fact that family participation is very important to our program and is reflected in policy and program activities. We feel our interdisciplinary faculty, long history of experience, and willingness to collaborate makes us excellent partners in building the future together for families. A parent advisory group was formed to continue to work closely with families in the community in order to get their support and feedback on CCHD services and the development of future projects. The advisory group is made up of families across multiple counties. The group will meet quarterly. The parents received a 3 ring binder that outlines our goals for the group; norms for the meeting; and purpose of the group. Minutes of the meetings and other written information will be given out as needed to inform the parents of the topic at hand. Dinner is served to all. Student trainees help in the facilitation of the meeting along with staff including the Special Healthcare Needs social worker and CCHD parent educator. The feedback from this group will help guide the Center's decisions on family centered practices and in the development of new goals and objectives for future projects and collaborative collaborative efforts.
Wyandottle County Early Childhood Interagency Coordinating Council	Early intervention services enhance the development of infants and toddlers with disabilities or at risk for disability; minimize the potential for developmental delay; reduce educational costs to society; minimize the likelihood of institutionalization of individuals with disabilities; and maximize the potential for independent living in society. Kansas lead agencies(Tiny-K networks) are responsible for administering Part C of IDEA but the complexity of child and family needs frequently requires delivery of health, education and social services by a variety of providers and agencies. At the direction of the Kansas Coordinating Council on Early childhood Developmental Services (KDHE) local communities are responsible for having a local interagency coordinating council (ICC) that has as one of its purposes the coordination of early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. The Wyandotte County Interagency Coordinating Council consists of members who reflect the community including parents of children with disabilities and representatives of a variety of agencies (health, educational, social service)serving children and families in Wyandotte County, Kansas.Overall goals and objectives of the Wyandotte County ICC are to identify service providers who can provide services to infants and toddlers and their families, advise and assist local service providers, communicate and collaborate with other agencies and local councils on issues of concern and develop a plan describing the system for coodinating the services. The Center for Child Health and Development faculty participation on the Wyandotte ICC provides a unique contribution as a representative affiliated with a university based hospital with a neonatal intensive care unit, diagnostic and intervention health clinics and routine care provided for many Wyandotte County infants and toddlers. Expected results are increased coordination of care and early referral to appropriate agencies resulting in improved health, education and social outcomes fo children of Wyandotte County,Kansas.
Support Specialist	This project provides a young adult with DD meaningful, paid employment while receiving job skills training in a community setting. It has a one-year duration. The position can be offered to a different person each year. In addition to the duties of the job, the Support Specialist sits on the Community Outreach committeee and participates in social activities in our department. The inclusion of an adult with DD as an employee provides our staff with the opportunity to interact and become more familiar with life span issues. The expected outcome for the Support Specialist is skills and job experience gained which will lead to competitive employment.
Hormones and DNA Methylation in Autism	Our lab demonstrated sex differences in G protein expression and activity in both mice and humans. Sex differences in susceptibility to autism are well documented. Although gonadal steroid levels are not sexually dimorphic in four and five year olds, males and females are exposed to divergent levels of androgens and estrogens in utero and for the first six months of life. We speculated that the observed sex differences relate to sexually dimorphic past exposure to gonadal steroids. Exposure to aberrant levels of estrogens in utero or during the perinatal period is now known to lead to later permanent alterations in gene expression. Although this phenomenon has been termed ?hormonal imprinting,? the actual mechanisms remain poorly understood. Prenatal exposure to Bisphenol A (BPA), a common environmental toxin with estrogenic properties, has been shown to lead to permanent changes in gene expression: Exposure to BPA and other estrogens in utero or during the perinatal period leads to hypomethylation of DNA later in life, which leads to increased expression of normally silenced genes in mice and rats (14-17). Studies in rodents demonstrate that neonatal exposure to BPA and other estrogenic compounds may increase aggression and anxiety in adulthood (18). Our overall hypothesis is that early exposure to BPA and/or to aberrant levels of estrogens causes hypomethylation of DNA in brain, leading to transcriptional over expression of normally silenced genes or alleles, including Gαs. We speculate that this leads to abnormal neuronal signaling and austim. Specific aims.1) We will expose mouse neuronal cell lines and primary brain cultures from male and female mice to BPA, other estrogens, androgens, and demethylating agents. A) We will quantitate mRNA expression of 6 imprinted genes linked to autism, in addition to 2 paternally expressed differentially methylated genes. B) We will measure the degree of DNA methylation of promoters of a subset of the above imprinted genes, as well as C) global DNA methylation. 2) We will perform gene-specific and global DNA methylation studies on peripheral blood DNA from 8 autistic male subjects, and in 8 typically developing male and female subjects. Genome-wide methylation specific micro-arrays will be performed in a subset of 5 subjects.
Education of Pediatric Residents	KU Pediatric Residents are required to take 2 one month rotations in developmental-behavioral pediatrics over the course of their 3 year residency. Residents must complete ACGME competency based assignments.
Johnson County Early Childhood Learning Collaborative	Early intervention services enhance the development of infants and toddlers with disabilities or at risk for disability; minimize the potential for developmental delay; reduce educational costs to society; minimize the likelihood of institutionalization of individuals with disabilities; and maximize the potential for independent living in society. Kansas lead agencies(Tiny-K networks) are responsible for administering Part C of IDEA but the complexity of child and family needs frequently requires delivery of health, education and social services by a variety of providers and agencies. At the direction of the Kansas Coordinating Council on Early Childhood Developmental Services (KDHE) local communities are responsible for having a local interagency coordinating council (ICC) that has as one of its purposes the coordination of early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. The Johnson County Early Childhood Learning Collaborative (JELC) consists of members who reflect the community including parents of children with disabilities and representatives of a variety of agencies (health, educational, social service)serving children and families in Johnson County, Kansas.Overall goals and objectives of the JELC are to identify service providers who can provide services to from birth through 5 years of age and their families, advise and assist local service providers, communicate and collaborate with other agencies and local councils on issues of concern and develop a plan describing the system for coodinating the services. The Center for Child Health and Development faculty participation on JELC provides a unique contribution as a representative affiliated with a university based hospital with a neonatal intensive care unit, diagnostic and intervention health clinics and routine care provided for many Johnson County children. Expected results are increased coordination of care and early referral to appropriate agencies resulting in improved health, education and social outcomes fo children of Johnson County,Kansas.
Cystic Fibrosis Mentoring Project	the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation has a mentoring program for all disiplines. You apply for the position of Nutrition Mentor. If accepted, which I was, you then will be matched with a newer dietitian that has not worked with patients with Cystic Fibrosis. The goals and objectives are to educate newer professionals in the field of nutrition so that we all try and practice the same principles. The Cf Foundation has superior expectations and due to that the expected benefits are better patient outcomes for all patients.
OASIS Autism Training	The prevalence of autism in America is reaching epidemic proportions. The U.S. Department of Education has documented almost a 220% increase in the last 12 years (DOE, 2003). As with any other chronic and debilitating childhood disorder, early, intensive and comprehensive intervention is of paramount importance. Unfortunately, the excessive cost associated with these interventions prevents many children from benefiting from them. While training parents to implement effective interventions themselves can significantly reduce the cost of services, limitations imposed by geographical location or transportation prohibits many families from accessing appropriate training. The lack of access can have devastating effects on child-outcomes as well as the overall quality of family life. Some research has suggested that without intensive early intervention, nearly 90% of these children will require some type of residential placement when they are adults (Lovaas, 1987). This project seeks to address this access and training deficit by developing a program that uses a Research-to-Practice Outreach Training model to teach parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) how to implement empirically-based interventions with their children. The development of this program will proceed across four phases: 1) Initial content and system development and informational focus groups; 2) formative evaluation; 3) Quasi-experimental assessment and system refinement; and 4) final analysis and preparation for dissemination. Drawing from the Participatory Action Research Model, parents of children with Autism will use online tutorials to learn general information and concepts related to an intervention or treatment protocol followed by either an onsite or telemedicine clinic intervention session. During the intervention session parents will practice the techniques discussed in that week's online tutorials with their child while receiving guidance and immediate feedback from a Ph.D. or Master's level clinician. Program effectiveness will be evaluated based on: level of parental knowledge and skill fluency; child level of disability (e.g. the ICF) and behavior; and reported family quality of life. In addition, participants will complete exit surveys and interviews to elicit feedback regarding how the program could be improved and any problems the experienced. Families selected for the evaluation stage will be selected based on child's age (19 months to five years), diagnosis (ASD), and time of diagnosis (within the last 6 months). Intervention components will be introduced to study families in a multiple baseline design. These families will be paid for their participation in the project. In order to assess the sustainability of the project, following the Quasi-experimental assessment and refinement of the system, six additional families will be recruited to participate in the outreach telemedicine clinic from a community-based telemedicine site. These families will not be paid to participate, allowing for an initial assessment of the sustainability of this model past the end of funding. A final analyses of data collected during previously will be conducted. Given positive results, this technique will be disseminated to other institutions serving individuals with developmental disabilities in other regions of the country. Following the final analysis of data, families on the waiting list will be contacted and offered access to all program components (assessment and intervention services).
Children with Special Health Care Needs	Children with Special Health Care Needs(CSHCNs)is a state and federally funded program. The goal is to provide early identification of children at risk for or with disabilitities or chronic disease. CSHCN also provides diagnostic and treatment services and assures that all children and youth with special health care needs have medical homes. CSHCNs also promotes the functional skills of young persons in Kansas who have a disability or chronic disease by providing or supporting a system of health care. CSHCNs supports multi-disciplinary teams who assess the total needs of the child and by meeting with children on a regular basis for care and case management can assist that child in maintaining health and functionality. CSHCN's also leads the state in evaluating needs of children and advocating for assistance/development of services for this population. CSHCNs assists in providing clinics to rural Kansas and works with a state wide parent advisory committee to determine needs in those ares.
Community Partnerships Supporting LEND Community Clinic Rotations	The Center for Child Health and Development(CCHD)formed community partnerships with several organizations who serve children with developmental disabilities. The purpose of these partnerships is to give LEND trainees an opportunity to learn about specific supports in our community; work with professionals in a variety of therapeutic settings; experience the implementation of evidence-based strategies/interventions; and experience working with multi-disciplinary teams. Memorandums of Agreement were created to formalize the trainee's experience at the agency selected. The trainee worked with their supervisor at the site to list objectives to be met and the dates/time in attendance. A community clinic feedback form was also developed for each trainee to provide specific information to the staff at the CCHD on their community clinic experience. This information will be used to improve future trainees experience with our community partners.
Social Skills Groups in Parochial Schools
Autism Across the Lifespan
Girls Night Out
Girls Night Out
CRIS Clinical Autism Database	The Center For Child Health and Development is using the Velos product CRIS to 1) manage intakes for clinic; 2) develop a clinical database for research purposes; 3) manage clinical data to better respond to needs of community to do earlier evaluation and treatment of autism. CRIS is the research software adopted campus-wide at Univ of Kansas medical Center.We have worked with the CRIS team to develop intake form, patient internet portal where patients fill out clincial and family history info, and clinical forms to record data. CCHD sees over 800 children each year. We hope to use the form to build a clincial database to locate participants for research, look within the database for possible correations or research questions, and partner with other facilities in research. We anticipate having 800+ children a year with Autism in a database along with over 300 items of clincial data will be a valuable research tool.
Self-Determination in Transition to Adulthood for Youth with Disabilities: The Impact of Interventions on Self-Determination and Adult Outcomes	Promoting and enhancing the self-determination of youth with disabilities has become best practice in transition services. However, despite the wide visibility of the importance of self-determination to achieve positive life outcomes for youth with disabilities, there is very little research to document both the capacity of interventions designed to promote such outcomes to actually do so and of the impact of such interventions (and enhanced self-determination) on outcomes for youth. Researchers at The Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities and the Beach Center on Disability, both at the University of Kansas, and the Center on Self-Determination at the Oregon Health Sciences University propose to conduct a project under the NIDRR Disability Rehabilitation Research Projects (DRRP) competition on ?Research Projects for Stabilizing and Improving Lives of Persons with Disabilities,? priority (a) ?Self-Determination in Transition to Adulthood for Youth with Disabilities? to address this gap in the knowledge base. The proposed project will conduct three semi-longitudinal, national research studies examining the impact of interventions to promote the self-determination of students with high incidence (learning disabilities, mild intellectual disabilities, emotional/behavioral disorders, etc.) and low incidence disabilities (moderate to severe intellectual disabilities, multiple disabilities, severe autism), and students who are at-risk for poor adult outcomes (students with disabilities from foster systems, students who have had interactions with the juvenile justice system, etc.) on student self-determination and on the impact of self-determination on adult outcomes and quality of life. Study 1: Researchers at the University of Kansas will take the lead on a study to examine the impact of instruction to promote self-determination for youth with high incidence disabilities. The study will examine self-determination as both a dependent and independent variable, and thus will provide data to validate the self-determination construct, to show the efficacy of intensity of treatment to promote self-determination on that outcome (e.g., promoting self-determination), and examine the impact of promoting self-determination on a wide array of adult outcomes for youth, including employment, independent living, and quality of life. The study will utilize a randomized trial, placebo control group design in which 300 students with high incidence disabilities are randomly assigned (by school district) to one of three groups (n = 100 per group). The multiple levels of the treatment will involve a placebo control group (e.g., students participate in a treatment, but one that is not anticipated to impact the outcomes of self-determination), a ?student involvement only? intervention group in which students participate only in activities designed to promote their involvement in educational planning and decision-making, and a comprehensive treatment group in which students receive multiple treatments (e.g., student involvement, instruction infused into all courses, etc.). Students involved will be high school sophomores with high incidence disabilities (learning disabilities, mild intellectual disabilities, emotional/behavioral disorders, etc.). We will use multiple measures of self-determination (The Arc?s Self-Determination Scale, the AIR Self-Determination Scale, The Minnesota Self-Determination Scales (Decision-Making Preference Scale; Importance Scale), and the ChoiceMaker Self-Determination Assessment. All students will be assessed at baseline (prior to intervention), and annually through their final three years of school. We will also collect data with regard to fidelity of treatment using appropriate instruments related to the interventions implemented. Finally, we will collect data on other variables hypothesized to impact self-determination and adult outcomes (level of intelligence, # of vocational courses, etc.) and on demographic variables in general. At the end of each student?s senior year we will collect data on self-determination for the final time, and will examine differences between groups on self-determination as a function of treatment group and other relevant variables. This will provide data with regard to construct validity for the SD construct, and will provide data with regard to the impact of interventions, at a high and low intensity level, to promote self-determination on student self-determination. Then, during the final two years of the project, we will conduct a follow-up study of all students involved in the intervention phase of the study to determine the impact of self-determination on adult outcomes, including quality of life, employment outcomes, independent living and community inclusion outcomes, and so forth. We will collect follow up data one and two years post graduation for all students. Study 2: The second study, also conducted with the University of Kansas site as the lead, will examine self-determination, career development, and employment/living outcomes for adolescents with severe disabilities. Researchers at KU have been involved with a process infusing self-determination throughout public school programs for students ages 18-21, the majority of whom are students with severe disabilities who need additional time to prepare for the transition to adulthood. This process, called ?Beyond High School? involves a multi-stage, multi-component implementation of practices that teach students skills they need to self-direct educational planning, engage students in goal setting related to adult outcome areas, and support students to self-direct many aspects of the learning and implementation process. In the Beyond High School model, teachers and other stakeholders support the student to identify his or her own job and career preferences and to set goals related to those preferences. Only at that point in time does job development begin, and with the active involvement of the student. In addition, this study will actively involve adult employment specialists, including vocational rehabilitation counselors, by implementing a decision-making process, called the Self-Determined Career Development Model, which has been designed and evaluated to enable VR and others to support consumers with disabilities to self-regulate the problem solving process leading to job placement. We will again use a randomized trial, placebo control group design in which 100 students with severe disabilities are assigned (randomly, by district) to either a control group (which will be traditional 18-21 program with a placebo intervention from the project that is not anticipated to impact self-determination) or a treatment group, which receives the Beyond High School/SDCDM intervention. It is not appropriate to administer self-report measures of self-determination such as those used in study 1 to students with severe disabilities, so we will measure treatment impact through single subject research designs and through the use of the Goal Attainment Scaling process, which can be linked to student goal setting activities and validate student achievement of educationally relevant goals. Student will be involved at the age of 18 and will participate (in either the control or treatment group) through the age of 21. At the end of the third project year, we will begin to collect data on student outcomes pertaining to employment (employed/unemployed, full or part time, wages earned, benefits, etc.), independent living, and other transition-related outcomes. We will do so for students in both the control and treatment groups at the end of the 18-21 program and at one and two years out of school, and will examine differences between groups in initial and subsequent outcomes. Study 3. The third study will be conducted with the OHSU Research team as the lead investigators, and will involve a randomized control study involving 100 youth receiving special education who are in the foster care system and are between the ages of 16 and 21. This group of students are disproportionately represented in special education (40-50%) and are at high risk for homelessness, unemployment and involvement with the juvenile justice and adult criminal systems. The intervention to be evaluated will be intensive, based on the Center on Self-Determination?s TAKE CHARGE for the future program and will be implement through non-school settings, such as the students foster care setting, Independent Living programs and one-stops. Intervention will include coaching in the in-situ application of self-determination related skills and mentorship. Measurement will be similar to those tools identified in the first study, and after three years of intensive treatment, the final two years will examine adult employment, post-secondary education, independent living, and community integration outcomes through a follow-along study component. Across all studies we will implement multiple dissemination strategies to get information to key stakeholder groups, including parents, teachers, and policy makers through multiple means and multiple networks, including the UCEDD network, the NIDRR partner networks, and so forth.
Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Cognitive Technologies	The study will involve a large-scale, randomized trial design study of the impact of cognitively accessible technologies on the capacity of students with intellectual disabilities to more independently make decisions related to the transition areas of independent living, community inclusion, recreation and leisure, and employment. The impact of the intervention on student self-determination will be determined using a randomized, placebo group design. One hundred high school students with mental retardation will be randomly assigned to the treatment group receiving the intervention, and 100 more students with intellectual disabilities to a control group (no treatment). Student self-determination will be measured by multiple means at several intervals using multiple instruments, at the start of the project, after the completion of the first year, and at the completion of the second year. The intervention will be implemented in relation to transition-related instruction (particularly employment and vocational related training) for at least two consecutive years. Upon student graduation from high school (during the final three years of the RERC project), project staff will collect follow up data regarding adult outcomes for youth involved in the intervention to determine the impact of the intervention on outcomes such as employment and independent living. To ensure ongoing involvement from students in the control group, we will implement a placebo intervention, one which is identified as having benefit to the students, but which is not anticipated to impact the variables targeted by the intervention. We will determine the placebo intervention in conjunction with teachers and schools involved in the project. The intervention will involve the implementation of two existing software programs with transition-age youth with cognitive disabilities. The first such product is a PC-based software called Decision Manager that uses audio and video prompts to enable persons with cognitive impairments to independently complete complex tasks that involve one or more decision points. This software uses an expert-system methodology to solicit information from the student, who is presented with a decision point. Users reaching decision points respond to situation-dependent queries from the software to help process contextual information and make appropriate decisions. The second is JobQuest, an Internet based multi-media program to enable persons to identify preferences in job and career related activities. This system enables individuals with literacy impairments to interact with video and audio representations of job tasks and then indicate their preferences, without requiring assistance from others to complete the assessment. Once the self-directed assessment is completed, an expert system approach is used to compare the expressed interests of the student to jobs in the Department of Labor?s O*NET database to find jobs that match the student?s interests. These jobs are then presented to the student using the interactive multimedia system.Measures of self-determination will include The Arc?s Self-Determination Scale, a standardized, norm referenced student self-report measure of self-determination, and the AIR Self-Determination Scale, which includes teacher, student, and parent report forms, both of which have been validated for use with students with mental retardation. Post-graduation outcomes will be determined using a survey developed by the PI and and used in two follow up studies examining the impact of self-determination on adult outcomes. The instrument contains a series of questions pertaining to student living arrangements, current and past employment, situations, post-secondary education status, and community integration outcomes.
A National Gateway to Self-Determination.	The purpose of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services? Administration on Developmental Disabilities RFP to fund a national training project on self-determination is to support efforts to scale up the implementation of training and technical assistance with regard to self-determination and, thus, to enable people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to experience greater integration and an enhanced quality of life. In response to this RFP, the University of Missouri at Kansas City has formed a partnership with the University of Kansas, the University of Oregon, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Westchester Institute for Human Development at the New York Medical College to conduct a 5 year project to meet the requirements of the RFP and to achieve the outcomes envisioned by the Administration on Developmental Disabilities. To do so, project partners will engage in activities related to the following major project objectives.1. To form partnerships and collaborations to support the creation of a national self-determination (SD) training initiative. There are a number of levels of partnership and collaboration that are planned to support this initiative. 2. To develop a model research based framework that supports the development of self-determination skills and create a sustainable plan for scaling up self-determination training on a national level (Phase I). During this phase promising SD models and practices will be reviewed, a model SD framework refined, gaps in training identified, and a plan to develop/sustain a nation SD training initiative created.3. To develop and test approaches that fill existing gaps and provides national self-determination training (Phase II). During this phase a variety of SD training initiatives will be developed and piloted that are designed to fill gaps identified in Phase I and to reach those who are the not benefiting from existing SD training initiatives. 4. To market the self-determination training initiative nationally and promote large scale implementation and sustainability (Phase III). During this phase pilot training initiatives developed during Phase II will be implemented on a larger national level and the sustainability plan developed in Phase I will be updated and implemented.5. To evaluate the effectiveness of the national self-determination training initiative and disseminate findings, results, and research to practice publications.
Cooperative Project on Dual Diagnosis of Persons with Disabilities	CRSS works to stabilize individuals in crisis that have a dual diagnosis of developmental disability and mental illness. The general goal is to prevent the need for hospitalization for mental health issues.The overall goals and objectives of the consumer is to provide them with the greatest amount of independence and interdependence in the community as possible. The primary emphasis is the avoidance of state hospital institutionalization.The expected benefits is that the consumer will have greater independence and that their will be less expense for the state because of lessened institutionalization.
Ozark Center for Autism Diagnostic Team Training	The Ozark Center for Autism in Joplin Missouri serves the state's southwest counties families and children with autism spectrum disorder. They are a school that provides preschool services as well as in home and in school support for their students. Their goal is to expand and become not only a center for treatment, but also a center for diagnostic services related to autism spectrum disorders. The Ozark Center has contracted with the Center for Child Health and Development to train their personnel in the diagnostic process for autism spectrum disorder. This training will occur over the course of the 2011 Fiscal Year and planning meetings have been taking place in the 2010 Fiscal Year. Training consists of on site (at Ozark Center) training through a two day workshop, demonstrations and clinical observation at CCHD and at Ozark Center and on-going consultation with team members.