Intellectual disabilities, the aging brain, how we learn to talk and think, the independence of individuals with physical disabilities in society—these are among the big themes that drive the work of the affiliated Centers of the Life Span Institute.
Each Center draws together a distinct group of researchers from diverse fields and backgrounds with a common interest in investigating specific problems of human development, disabilities and aging.
Together the Centers represent a broad range of approaches to human problems from preconception to the end of life.
The Kansas KIDDRC has been continuously funded by a core grant from the National Institute of Health and Human Development for the past 40 years. Over its history the KIDDRC has played a major international role in generating highly effective behavioral interventions aimed at the causes, prevention, and treatment of intellectual disabilities and related secondary conditions, and in delineating basic knowledge of the underlying biology of typical and atypical development. The Center spans the KU-Lawrence and Kansas University Medical Center campuses as well as the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project and the Life Span Institute at Parsons. Over the past four decades it has served as a model of interdisciplinary collaboration across campuses and disciplines.
Steven F. Warren, Ph.D., Director
Peter Smith, Ph.D., Co-Director
Contact: 785 864-4295, http://kiddrc.kumc.edu
More than 35 years ago, as the Life Span Institute’s research on developmental disabilities took root, efforts began to translate this research into practice through what is now known as the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities (KUCDD). Virtually all of the Life Span Institute’s direct service, technical assistance, and post-doctoral, pre- and in-service training are associated with KUCDD. These include clinics to diagnose and treat children with disabilities, a statewide project that provides assistive technology to people with disabilities and their families, and training childcare providers and social workers to support individuals with disabilities. In addition, investigators affiliated with the KUCDD conduct research that has state, national and international impact in areas like self-determination, positive behavior supports, inclusive educational practices, early childhood education, community and workplace supports, family systems and supports, and other areas critical to the lives of people with developmental disabilities and their families.
Michael L. Wehmeyer, Ph.D., FAAMR, Executive Director
Glen White, Ph.D., Associate Director
Chet Johnson, M.D., Director, KUCDD-Kansas City Site
David Lindeman, Ph.D., Director, KUCDD-Parsons Site
Michael L. Wehmeyer, Ph.D., Director, KUCDD-Lawrence Site
Wendy Parent, Ph.D., Assistant Director, KUCDD-Lawrence Site
R. Matthew Reese, Ph.D., Assistant Director, KUCDD-Kansas City Site
Contact: 785 864-4295
For more than 40 years, the University of Kansas has maintained research, service, and training programs housed on the campus of the Parsons State Hospital, including a major component of the Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities. This Institute, located in rural southeast Kansas, currently has research addressing early literacy and reading, maladaptive/challenging behavior, and program evaluation strategies. Additionally, this program has provided significant service and training across the State of Kansas addressing the assistive technology needs of Kansans, early intervention and early childhood, and training for community organizations and agencies serving persons with developmental disabilities.
David P. Lindeman, Ph.D., Director
Contact: 620 421-6550, ext. 1713, http://www.parsons.lsi.ku.edu
The Juniper Gardens Children’s Project began in 1964 when citizens from the northeast Kansas City, Kansas neighborhood joined with faculty from the University of Kansas to devise solutions to specific problems in educational achievement and parenting in that low-income community. The Project has grown over the years from a small, community-based research initiative housed in the basement of a liquor store to a unique internationally recognized research center that includes multiple community sites, projects, and investigators. The Project is particularly recognized for its contributions to the development of effective approaches for accelerating learning and reducing classroom conduct problems in both special and general education. In 1996 JGCP was given the Research Award of the International Council for Exceptional Children in recognition of its outstanding research contributions.
Charles R. Greenwood, Ph.D., Director
Contact: 913 321-3143, http://www.jgcp.ku.edu
Through excellence in research, training, and technical assistance and public service in Kansas, the nation, and the world, the Beach Center on Disability seeks to make a significant and sustainable difference in the qualify of life of families and individuals affected by disability. Research focuses on access to the general curriculum, assistive technology, deaf-blindness, disability policy, employment, family supports and services in early childhood, family quality of life, individual control of funding, positive behavior support, and self-determination. Founded in 1988 by KU Special Education Professors Ann and Rud Turnbull, the Beach Center honors Ross and Marianna Beach for their long-standing efforts on behalf of families affected by disability.
H. Rutherford Turnbull, III, Ll.B./ J.D., Ll.M., Co-Director
Ann P. Turnbull, Ed.D., Co-Director
Michael L. Wehmeyer, Ph.D., Associate Director
Wayne Sailor, Ph.D., Co-Associate Director
Contact: 785 864-7600, http://www.beachcenter.org
The Research and Training Center on Independent Living (RTC/IL) has a 25 year history of productive research, comprehensive training, and innovative dissemination of knowledge. The RTC/IL was conceived as a center without walls that would do what was necessary to enhance the Independent Living field and the lives of individuals with disabilities. In this synergistic environment, persons with disabilities, researchers, trainers, and policy makers have worked to produce much more than they could have as individuals or groups.
Glen W. White, Ph.D., Director
Contact: 785 864-4095, http:///www.rtcil.org
The Gerontology Center’s affiliation with the Bureau of Child Research in 1990 paved the way for an extended research agenda of the newly formed Life Span Institute. Center researchers are interested in
all areas of aging, but are distinguished by seminal research in cognition, communication and aging, long-term health care and housing alternatives, and decision making in later life. The Center coordinates an interdisciplinary graduate certificate program in gerontology for students enrolled in any master’s or doctoral program at the University as well as a multidisciplinary graduate program that offers both masters and doctoral degrees in gerontology.
David J. Ekerdt, Ph.D., Interim Director
Contact: 785 864-4130, http://www2.ku.edu/~kugeron/
The Child Language Doctoral Program was established in 1983 as the first specialized degree program in the emerging field of child language acquisition. The program focuses on the interdisciplinary academic preparation and research training of child language specialists. The internationally recognized faculty bring diverse approaches to the study of how children communicate and speak. The program offers students a wide choice of research tools, facilities, and field sites including the Child Language Acquisition Studies Lab that has the largest known archive of transcribed spontaneous samples from preschool children diagnosed as receptive/expressive specific language impaired. Research sites and practica are provided by the Life Span Institute, the Language Acquisition Preschool, and the clinical and research facilities of the Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic.
Mabel L. Rice, Ph.D., Director
Contact: 785 864-4570, http://www.clp.ku.edu/
The Merrill Advanced Studies Center, founded in 1990 with an endowment from Virginia Urban Merrill and Fred Merrill, is a catalyst for scholarship on disabilities and policies that shape university research. Merrill conferences and publications establish new directions and build collaborative projects in both science and policy. World-class experts often meet as a group for the first time at Merrill conferences and go on to develop national projects that answer key questions in science. The Center publishes books on topics relevant to developmental disabilities and makes policy papers available online and in print. The Merrill web site at KU has fact sheets and discussions on science and policy for the general public.
Mabel L. Rice, Ph.D., Director
Contact: 785 864-4570, http://merrill.ku.edu/
The Center for Biobehavioral Neurosciences in Communication Disorders (BNCD) became the Life Span Institute’s newest affiliated research center in 2002 when the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders awarded a core grant to establish the center. The BNCD is a natural outgrowth of the Life Span Institute’s long-standing focus on communication and language development and intervention. The BNCD’s research spans a wide range of issues relevant to the causes and treatment of communication disorders from infancy to old age including studies on infant attention, the genetics of language impairments, language intervention, the decline of working memory in old age as reflected in speech, and more precise measures of hearing loss to aid cochlear implant design.
Mabel L. Rice, Ph.D., Director
Contact: 785 864-4570, http://www.bncd.ku.edu/
Established in 1975, the KU Work Group joined the Life Span Institute as a distinct center in 1990. The Work Group has developed widely used capabilities for: a) Community evaluation and community-based participatory research (including its Online Documentation and Support System) and b) Building capacity for community health and development (including the Community Tool Box). Recognition of these capabilities led to official designation in 2004 as a World Health Organization Collaborating Centre.
Stephen B. Fawcett, Ph.D., Director
Contact: 785 864-0533, http://ctb.ku.edu/
The Center for Physical Activity and Weight Management joined the Institute in 2001 and supports research, training, and clinics for weight loss and weight maintenance. The Center is interested in the metabolic syndrome, abnormal values for blood lipids, glucose, insulin, and blood pressure that accompany overweight and obesity. The Center also has a major effort aimed at preventing overweight and obesity in children by increasing physical activity and reducing high fat, energy dense foods in elementary schools. The Center’s Energy Balance Laboratory features a whole-room indirect calorimeter that measures energy expenditure precisely under a variety of experimental conditions.
Joseph E. Donnelly, Ed.D., Director
Contact: 785 864-0797, http://www.ebl.ku.edu
The Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training (K-CART) at the University of Kansas, established in 2008 with private and public funds, is a multidisciplinary center that promotes research and training on the causes, nature and management of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Committed to the highest standards of scientific rigor, K-CART generates new scientific discoveries about ASD, disseminates research-based practices by training professionals, practitioners and families who serve children and adults with autism and provides clinical services through the Center for Child Health and Development at the University of Kansas Medical Center.
Debra Kamps, Ph.D. Director
R. Matthew Reese, Ph.D., Co-Director
Contact: 913 321-3143, kcart.ku.edu
Centro Ann Sullivan del Perú (CASP) is a nonprofit educational institution that serves children and adults with severe intellectual disabilities, autism and behavioral problems, their families and professionals from Peru and other parts of the world. Under the direction of its founder Liliana Mayo, Ph.D., CASP is recognized and honored worldwide for its contributions as a model research, demonstration and training center. Dr. Mayo pioneered the education and employment of people with autism and other developmental disabilities in Peru by starting a school in the garage of her home in Lima in 1979. In 1985, she began attending the University of Kansas in the spring semesters and applying what she learned at the Center during the rest of the year. Mayo has been supported by a steady stream of her KU colleagues - close to 300 - who have volunteered as consultants, trainers, administrators and fundraisers, notably, Dr. Judith Le Blanc, who serves as CASP research director, and retired Life Span Director Stephen Schroeder and Carolyn Schroeder. CASP has a formal agreement with the Life Span Institute and receives much of its staff education through university faculty from the KU departments of Special Education and Applied Behavioral Science.
Liliana Mayo, Ph.D., Director
http://annsullivan.fundaciontelefonica.org.pe/
