The Florida State University has received a $573,554 grant award from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for a collaborative project between the PALM Center at the School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) and the Autism Institute at the College of Medicine.

Project PALS (Panhandle Autism Library Services) is a two-year program to improve information services for rural library patrons who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

During the past two decades, ASD has become the largest growing disability in the U.S. with one in 88 children facing significant social, vocational and educational challenges. Those with ASD may have difficulties with social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, behavior and interests.

Because libraries are low stress, structured places that offer resources to participate in self-directed learning, connect with others and explore employment, they have been identified as excellent environments for those with ASD. However, there is no research and little information to ensure that this growing, underserved population will be successful in library settings.

Funded by the IMLS Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program and led by faculty at two schools within the College of Communication & Information, Project PALS will develop and offer four research-based, professional development modules that will teach librarians how to better serve patrons with ASD.

Project co-directors Dr. Nancy Everhart (SLIS) and Dr. Juliann Woods (School of Communication Science & Disorders) are both national leaders in their respective fields, known for their research in the evaluation of programs.

Everhart, who is director of the PALM (Partnerships Advancing Library Media) Center, will lead the management and implementation of the project, which includes consultants and advisors at the FSU Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, the Panhandle Library Access Network, the Scotch Plains (New Jersey) Public Library’s “Libraries and Autism: We’re Connected” project, Syracuse University’s Project ENABLE, and others.

Woods, associate director for research to practice at the Autism Institute, will lend her expertise from the development of the Autism Navigator, a web-based early-detection tool that aids service providers in recognizing and serving children with ASD. She will be integrally involved in the development and field-testing of an Autism Navigator for Librarians to ensure its maximum effectiveness.

Three students will be supported to work on the project and at least 170 librarians will participate in the development and testing of the modules, which will be freely available to the general public.

School of Communication & Science Disorders faculty member, Dr. Kaitlin Lansford, and two School of Library & Information Studies faculty members, Dr. Shuyuan Mary Ho and Dr. Richard Urban, have each been awarded First Year Assistant Professor (FYAP) Grants for 2013.

Here are some of their research project topics and links to abstract summaries:

• Dr. Kaitlin Lansford
• Dr. Shuyuan Mary Ho-
  “Identity Deception and Detection in Computer-Mediated Communications”
• Dr. Richard Urban- “Representation Patterns for Cultural Heritage”

The FSU Council on Research and Creativity offers several grant programs to support the development of research and creative activity endeavors by FSU faculty members.  These programs are made possible by FSU research-generated funding.  The Council’s assists and also encourages faculty members to seek additional or continued funding for their endeavors from external sources.

Their competitive FYAP program annually provides $20,000 maximum in support to first year assistant professors for summer salary support to facilitate research and creative activity.  The program’s purpose is to provide beginning faculty members an opportunity to devote significant time and effort, during their first summer at FSU, to the research and creative activities of their academic careers, including efforts to obtain external funding for their work.

  

Two projects from SCSD Professor Juliann Woods have recently received funding:

• Autism Spectrum Specialized Education and Training (ASSET), the federally funded personnel preparation project designed to build the capacity of speech-language pathology graduate students specializing in the needs of individuals with autism spectrum disorders and their families, was awarded funding for a fourth time. Over 100 scholars have completed this program, which will support an additional 25 students with tuition and stipends. SCSD alumnus and research faculty in the Communication and Early Childhood Research and Practice Center, Dr. Emily Lakey (Ph.D., ’12), will coordinate the 2013 project. Learn more at http://asset.fsu.edu.
• Training in Research, Autism and Interdisciplinary Leadership (TRAIL), a collaboration between the SCSD and the Autism Institute at FSU’s College of Medicine, will begin recruiting students interested in doctoral degrees with a specialization in autism research for fall, 2013. Woods and L.L. Schendel Professor Dr. Amy Wetherby are principal investigators on this five-year competency-based program that will provide diverse research, teaching and professional development experiences with a systematic mentorship approach to induction into the field and into a leadership role by current faculty, former graduates and community outreach mentors. Learn more at http://trail.med.fsu.edu.

The $5,000 Speech Science Research Grant that new SCSD Assistant Professor Kaitlin Lansford received last November at the 2012 Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in Atlanta will fund a project to improve diagnostic practices of dysarthria, a class of speech disorders that arises from neurological damage to the speech-motor control system.

Lansford, who joined the SCSD faculty this summer, has a primary research interest in the perceptual challenges associated with disordered and degraded speech. Dysarthria is characterized by frequent errors in the articulation, rhythm, stress and intonation of speech that can cause a reduction in its intelligibility.

A number of dysarthria subtypes have been identified and described in the literature, each associated with damage to specific components of speech-motor control. The current classification system, however, suffers from a number of limitations (e.g., overlapping perceptual features of the subtypes, effects of overall severity of the motor impairment on the dysarthria) that hinder medical professionals in their ability to properly diagnose the dysarthria subtype.

In addition, the classification system does not map well to the resulting communication disorders or to the potential treatment targets. A primary goal of the work to be completed in the Motor Speech Disorders lab at the SCSD is to develop a perceptual taxonomy of dysarthria to supplement current diagnostic practices. Toward this end, the specific aim of the project is to evaluate the construct validity of acoustic and perceptual features identified as salient to listeners’ judgments of similarity in dysarthria.

Dr. Mary Frances Hanline, left, of the College of Education and Dr. Juliann Woods, right, of CCI's School of Communication Science & Disorders

For the increasing number of “high-risk” families in Florida facing the complex challenges of infants and toddlers with disabilities and developmental delays, additional help is on the way.

Two Florida State University professors have received a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to train more educators in specialized early intervention and support.

“We are grateful that the U.S. Department of Education has once again recognized Florida State University’s extraordinary expertise and impact in educational policy and research,” President Eric J. Barron said.

The grant to Mary Frances Hanline, a professor of early childhood special education in the College of Education, and Juliann Woods, a professor in the School of Communication Science & Disorders, will support their Personnel Preparation in Early Intervention and Education Project. The five-year project aims to improve the quality and increase the number of personnel who are fully credentialed to serve children with disabilities from birth to age 5.

The new grant will enable Hanline and Woods to provide online courses to practicing early-intervention professionals throughout the state.

And for Florida State students preparing for careers in special education and early childhood education, the grant will mean enhanced opportunities for training in early intervention.

“Dr. Woods and I will be expanding the content of existing academic coursework and of field-based experiences, which will take place in programs providing services to ‘high-need’ families who need specialized intervention and support,” said Hanline, the Personnel Preparation in Early Intervention and Education Project principal investigator.

Among the project’s goals: Work with a total of 71 students over the next five years to produce 22 speech pathologists, 27 early-childhood special educators and 22 interdisciplinary pre-service professionals.

For more information on the grant, contact Amber Smalley of the College of Education at (850) 228-5943 or asmalley@fsu.edu.

Listen to the FSU Headlines radio news story about the grant and the research it is funding.