Fw: Florida State University Awarded $3 Million Grant to Study Autism Curriculum

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Subject: Florida State University Awarded $3 Million Grant to Study Autism CurriculumTo: dlorman@...Date: Monday, May 17, 2010, 6:42 AM

Florida State

University Awarded $3m Grant To Study Autism Curriculum

tinyurl.com/24llpxv

A 40-school study called Classroom SCERTS®

Intervention (CSI) is under way at The Florida State University to measure the

effectiveness of a curriculum designed specifically for students with autism.

The project is led by Amy Wetherby, professor in

the College of

Medicine and director of the

college’s Autism Institute; Lindee , director of the

institute’s Center for Autism and Related Disabilities; and Chris

Schatschneider, professor in the Department of Psychology. They were awarded a

four-year, $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s

Institute of

Education Sciences .

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a

developmental disability causing major social, communication and behavioral

challenges. The latest estimate from the Centers for Disease Control is that an

average of one child out of every 110 has ASD. That percentage is on the

increase.

In the CSI project, the curriculum under study

is SCERTS® (pronounced “sertsâ€), developed in 2006 by a team that

included Wetherby (www.scerts.com). It targets the most significant challenges

presented by ASD, spelled out in its acronym:

* “SC†— social communication.

* “ER†— emotional regulation.

* “TS†— transactional support

(developing a partnership of people at school and at home who can respond to

the ASD child’s needs and interests and enhance learning).

The curriculum already is used widely with a

variety of age groups, said, but this will be its first randomized

clinical trial in a school setting. The project will focus on kindergarten

through second-grade classrooms. The 40 participating schools will be randomly

assigned to one of two groups: the SCERTS® curriculum group or what the

researchers call “business as usual†programs.

“Sometimes in classrooms with

‘business as usual,’ it’s a one-size-fits-all

approach,†said. “It’s not necessarily tailored to the

specific child’s profiled strengths and weaknesses."

The SCERTS® curriculum will set individualized

intervention goals and objectives for the students and teaching staff. There

will be ongoing feedback from the research team.

“We’ll be collecting monthly

videotapes of the teachers’ implementation of SCERTS®,â€

said. “And there will be weekly coaching. We are hiring autism

specialists who will go in and do classroom observations."

Beginning in August, the researchers hope to

have about 10 public elementary schools participating from Florida and California .

said the researchers plan to have Leon ,

Calhoun and Volusia counties in Florida and

the San Diego Unified School District in California participate in the first year, and they’re hoping to involve many other

districts in Florida in subsequent years.

“We selected California in order to include a site that was very different from

Florida ,†said. Also, the

San Diego district is

interested in this research and has had some training in this curriculum.

Wetherby’s team at the Autism Institute

already has $9 million worth of active projects funded by the National

Institutes of Health. Wetherby received a Distinguished Research Professor

Award at the FSU 2010 Faculty Awards ceremony held last month.

Donna Lorman, President