New Insights into Language Development: The Role of Joint Attention in Kids with Down Syndrome and Autism

Attention is a key component of learning. Think of how hard it is to learn someone’s name if all you can think about is the eyelash on their cheek. The same can be said for language learning.

LEADer Study (A. Sterling)

The purpose of this research is to better understand how skills related to executive function like memory and flexible thinking are related to grammar and language comprehension and production in children with FXS, DS, and DLD, and a comparison group of neurotypical children.

Waisman postdoctoral training program: Training the next generation of IDD researchers

The first two years of the grant provided funding for two seminars in an academic year, but in a short span, seeing the tangible benefits these had, they expanded from two lectures a year, to two a month.

New NIH grant to study language use as potential predictor of neurodegenerative disorder in FMR1 premutation carriers

A new study will investigate if language differences can predict the development of a neurodegenerative disorder in people that carry a premutation of the gene FMR1.

Postdoctoral program equips a new generation of scientists in IDD research

For more than 26 years, the center’s Postdoctoral Training Program in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research has helped shape the careers and research paths of 53 postdoctoral researchers through multidisciplinary training in social, epidemiological, behavioral and biobehavioral research on intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).