Morse Scholars

Curriculum Vitae

My research promotes child and family health and well-being through engagement in meaningful occupations with children with autism and sensory processing disorders, adolescents and young adults with intellectual disabilities, and infants as risk of developmental disorders.  I work from my foundation in Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science with a particular interest in community engagement and family-centered interventions. My research uses a stakeholder engaged approach and often includes components of community based participatory research (CBPR). My current projects include:

• Research engagement on health research priorities for people with intellectual disability
• Evaluation of accessibility for cultural institutions for families with children with autism
• Qualitative investigation of mother’s experiences of parent-mediated feeding therapy for children with autism and feeding challenges
• A program evaluation for alternative education for pregnant and parenting teens in high school

In addition to research, I have a strong interest in interdisciplinary clinician training with a focus on justice, equity, diversity and inclusion.

Home department: Kinesiology: Occupational Science

Major professor: Karla Ausderau, PhD, OTR/L

Disciplines that I pull from in my research: Occupational Science, Occupational Therapy, Human Development and Family Studies, Developmental Psychology, Public Health, Education and Sociology

Articles that influenced my research:  

Durocher, E., Gibson, B. E., & Rappolt, S. (2014). Occupational Justice: A Conceptual Review. Journal of Occupational Science, 21(4), 418–430. https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2013.775692

Hasselkus, B. (2006). The World of Everyday Occupation: Real People, Real Lives. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy : Official Publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association, 60, 627–640. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.60.6.627

Krahn, G. L., & Fox, M. H. (2014). Health Disparities of Adults with Intellectual Disabilities: What Do We Know? What Do We Do? Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 27(5), 431–446. https://doi.org/10.1111/jar.12067

Sheridan, S., Schrandt, S., Forsythe, L., Hilliard, T. S., & Paez, K. A. (2017). The PCORI Engagement Rubric: Promising Practices for Partnering in Research. Annals of Family Medicine, 15(2), 165–170. https://doi.org/10.1370/afm.2042

Curriculum Vitae

I study language acquisition in bilingual children born preterm. I am interested in the role of parent input in successful language outcomes, as well as the role of domain general cognitive processes in word learning. In another line of work, I investigate the impact of speech disfluencies on word learning across the lifespan, in populations born full term. I’m interested in how bilinguals and monolinguals are impacted by disfluencies produced in native and non-native accents, and how disfluencies pattern with other features of spontaneous speech, like codeswitches.

Home department: Communication Sciences and Disorders

Major professor: Margarita Kaushanskaya, PhD

Disciplines that I pull from in my research: Communication Sciences and Disorders, Psychology, Linguistics

Articles that influenced my research:  

Buac, M., Tauzin-Larché, A., Weisberg, E., & Kaushanskaya, M. (2019). Effect of speaker certainty on novel word learning in monolingual and bilingual children. Bilingualism, 22(4), 883–895. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728918000536

Adams, K. A., Marchman, V. A., Loi, E. C., Ashland, M. D., Fernald, A., & Feldman, H. M. (2018). Caregiver Talk and Medical Risk as Predictors of Language Outcomes in Full Term and Preterm Toddlers. Child Development, 89(5), 1674–1690. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12818

Hirsh-Pasek, K., Adamson, L. B., Bakeman, R., Owen, M. T., Golinkoff, R. M., Pace, A., Yust, P. K. S., & Suma, K. (2015). The Contribution of Early Communication Quality to Low-Income Children’s Language Success. Psychological Science, 26(7), 1071–1083. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615581493

Weisleder, A., & Fernald, A. (2013). Talking to Children Matters: Early Language Experience Strengthens Processing and Builds Vocabulary. Psychological Science, 24(11), 2143–2152. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797613488145

Bosker, H. R., Quené, H., Sanders, T., & de Jong, N. H. (2014). Native ’um’s elicit prediction of low-frequency referents, but non-native ’um’s do not. Journal of Memory and Language, 75, 104–116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2014.05.004

Curriculum Vitae

My programmatic line of research seeks to identify early predictors of speech impairment severity in cerebral palsy (CP) through the study of infant vocal behaviors. This work is informed by an infrastructural framework of vocal development which presumes that earlier developmental stages of vocal production are foundational to more advanced stages and eventual speech production. My research is richly grounded in my experience as a school-based speech-language pathologist where I primarily served children with CP and other neurodevelopmental disorders with severe communication impairments. My long-term goal is to facilitate earlier diagnosis and clinical treatment planning to improve outcomes in children with complex communication needs as young as infancy.

Training mentor: Katie Hustad, PhD

Disciplines that I pull from in my research: Developmental Psychology, Linguistics, Special Education, Pediatrics, Rehabilitation Sciences, Evolutionary-Developmental Biology

Articles that influenced my research:

Hustad, K. C., Allison, K., McFadd, E., & Riehle, K. (2014). Speech and language development in 2-year-old children with cerebral palsy. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 17(3), 167–175. https://doi.org/10.3109/17518423.2012.747009

Oller, D. K., Eilers, R. E., Neal, A. R., & Cobo-Lewis, A. B. (1998). Late onset canonical babbling: A possible early marker of abnormal development. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 103(3), 249.

Levin, K. (1999). Babbling in infants with cerebral palsy. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 13(4), 249–267. https://doi.org/10.1080/026992099299077

Curriculum Vitae

My work centers on brain development in Down Syndrome (DS), using patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells. I am particularly interested in studying basal forebrain cholinergic neurons, which play a role in memory, spatial recognition, language, and even Alzheimer’s Disease. Understanding these particular neurons is important because they may play a key role in early childhood language barriers in DS as well as additional comorbidities throughout the life of an individual with DS.

Home department: Cell and Regenerative Biology, Cellular and Molecular Biology Graduate Program

Major professor: Anita Bhattacharyya, PhD

Disciplines that I pull from in my research: Developmental Biology, Stem Cell Biology, Neuroscience, Aging, and Bioinformatics

Articles that influenced my research:

Arendt T., Bigl V., Arendt A., Tennstedt A. (1983). Loss of neurons in the nucleus basalis of Meynert in Alzheimer’s disease, paralysis agitans and Korsakoff’s Disease. Acta Neuropathol. 61 101–108. 10.1007/bf00697388

Ash J. A., Velazquez R., Kelley C. M., Powers B. E., Ginsberg S. D., Mufson E. J., et al. (2014). Maternal choline supplementation improves spatial mapping and increases basal forebrain cholinergic neuron number and size in aged Ts65Dn mice. Neurobiol. Dis. 70 32–42. 10.1016/j.nbd.2014.06.001

Baker-Nigh A., Vahedi S., Davis E. G., Weintraub S., Bigio E. H., Klein W. L., et al. (2015). Neuronal amyloid-beta accumulation within cholinergic basal forebrain in ageing and Alzheimer’s disease. Brain 138 1722–1737. 10.1093/brain/awv024

Coyle J. T., Oster-Granite M. L., Gearhart J. D. (1986). The neurobiologic consequences of Down syndrome. Brain Res. Bull. 16 773–787. 10.1016/0361-9230(86)90074-2

Hamlett E. D., Boger H. A., Ledreux A., Kelley C. M., Mufson E. J., Falangola M. F., et al. (2016). Cognitive impairment, neuroimaging, and Alzheimer neuropathology in mouse models of down syndrome. Curr. Alzheimer Res. 13 35–52. 10.2174/1567205012666150921095505

Head E., Lott I. T., Wilcock D. M., Lemere C. A. (2016). Aging in Down syndrome and the development of Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology. Curr. Alzheimer Res. 13 18–29. 10.2174/1567205012666151020114607

Ovchinnikov D. A., Korn O., Virshup I., Wells C. A., Wolvetang E. J. (2018). The Impact of APP on Alzheimer-like pathogenesis and gene expression in Down syndrome iPSC-derived neurons. Stem Cell Rep. 11 32–42. 10.1016/j.stemcr.2018.05.004

Weick JP, Held DL, Bonadurer GF 3rd, Doers ME, Liu Y, Maguire C, Clark A, Knackert JA, Molinarolo K, Musser M, Yao L, Yin Y, Lu J, Zhang X, Zhang SC, Bhattacharyya A. (2013) Deficits in human trisomy 21 iPSCs and neurons. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States. 110(24):9962-7.

Zhao X., Bhattacharyya A. (2018). Human models are needed for studying human neurodevelopmental disorders. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 103 829–857. 10.1016/j.ajhg.2018.10.009

Curriculum Vitae

My research interests include the intersection of developmental disabilities, health disparities, and maternal and child health. Currently, under the Study to Explore Early Development (SEED), I am working to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced the adaptive behavior among preschool aged children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Understanding the mechanisms through which the pandemic may have influenced specific areas of development in children with ASD will allow us to better deliver services during unprecedented times in the future. Additionally, I am working on estimating the statewide prevalence of children with ASD in Wisconsin using Medicaid claims and educational data. Future work involves the inclusion of biomedical informatics to create an ASD registry for the state of Wisconsin to gain a better understanding of the epidemiology of ASD.

Home department: Population Health Sciences

Major professor: Maureen Durkin, PhD, DrPH

Disciplines that I pull from in my research: Epidemiology, Public Health, Sociology

Articles that influenced my research:

Lyall, K, Croen, L, Daniels, J, Fallin, MD, Ladd-Acosta, C, Lee, BK, Park, BY, Snyder, NW, Schendel, D, Volk, H, Windham, GC, & Newschaffer, C (2017). The changing epidemiology of autism spectrum disorders. Annual review of public health, 38, 81-102. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031816-044318

Mandell, DS, Ittenbach, RF, Levy, SE & Pinto-Martin, JA (2007). Disparities in diagnoses received prior to a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 37(9), 1795-1892. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-006-0314-8

Houtrow, A, Harris, D, Molinero, A, Levin-Decanini, T, & Robichaud, C (2020). Children with disabilities in the United States and the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of pediatric rehabilitation medicine, 13(3), 415-424. https://doi.org/10.3233/PRM-200769

Curriculum Vitae

My research centers on cognitive and adaptive functioning development in individuals with Down syndrome throughout the lifespan. One goal of this work is to determine how biological and environmental factors alter development and explain heterogeneity in these skills across individuals with Down syndrome; this information is important for directing interventions and individualized treatment plans. Another important aspect of studying cognition in individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities is measurement. My work is aimed at establishing feasible, reliable, and valid cognitive outcome measures for research studies and future clinical trials involving individuals with Down syndrome. This includes identifying cognitive measures that correlate with biomarkers of brain pathology in the unfolding of Alzheimer’s disease in Down syndrome. I am also interested in developing remote procedures for cognitive measurement to reduce participant burden and improve access to research in rural communities.

Training mentor: Sigan Hartley, PhD

Disciplines that I pull from in my research: Human Development and Family Studies, Psychology, Neuroscience, Aging, Education

Articles that influenced my research:

Hartley, S. L., Handen, B. L., Devenny, D., Tudorascu, D., Piro-Gambetti, B., Zammit, M. D., Laymon, C. M., Klunk, W. E., Zaman, S., Cohen, A., & Christian, B. T. (2020). Cognitive indicators of transition to preclinical and prodromal stages of Alzheimer’s disease in Down syndrome. Alzheimer’s & Dementia (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 12(1), e12096. https://doi.org/10.1002/dad2.12096

Thurm, A., Kelleher, B., & Wheeler, A. (2020). Outcome Measures for Core Symptoms of Intellectual Disability: State of the Field. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 125(6), 418–433. https://doi.org/10.1352/1944-7558-125.6.418

Esbensen, A. J., Hooper, S. R., Fidler, D., Hartley, S. L., Edgin, J., d’Ardhuy, X. L., Capone, G., Conners, F. A., Mervis, C. B., Abbeduto, L., Rafii, M. S., Krinsky-McHale, S. J., Urv, T., & Outcome Measures Working Group (2017). Outcome Measures for Clinical Trials in Down Syndrome. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 122(3), 247–281. https://doi.org/10.1352/1944-7558-122.3.247

Karmiloff-Smith, A., Al-Janabi, T., D’Souza, H., Groet, J., Massand, E., Mok, K., Startin, C., Fisher, E., Hardy, J., Nizetic, D., Tybulewicz, V., & Strydom, A. (2016). The importance of understanding individual differences in Down syndrome. F1000Research, 5, F1000 Faculty Rev-389. https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.7506.1

Kelleher, B. L., Halligan, T., Witthuhn, N., Neo, W. S., Hamrick, L., & Abbeduto, L. (2020). Bringing the Laboratory Home: PANDABox Telehealth-Based Assessment of Neurodevelopmental Risk in Children. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 1634. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01634

Daunhauer, L. A., Fidler, D. J., Hahn, L., Will, E., Lee, N. R., & Hepburn, S. (2014). Profiles of everyday executive functioning in young children with down syndrome. American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 119(4), 303–318. https://doi.org/10.1352/1944-7558-119.4.303