Introduction

Hello, my name is Casey Calhoun and I am a senior at BASIS Scottsdale. Instead of attending the last trimester of school, I will be participating in a research project from February to May. Specifically, my project investigates the language development of children with autism, and the effects of different therapy techniques on their speech.

My interest in language development is largely due to my five-year-old brother, Quince. Quince was diagnosed with autism at two, when he rapidly lost nearly all of his speech. For the past four years, we have been trying to improve his ability to communicate through therapy. I have learned that the variation within the autism diagnosis is immense, and that in particular the evolution of each autistic child's speech can be wildly different.

For example, there is another boy with autism at Quince's therapy who is roughly the same age. He speaks clearly and in complete phrases, but usually through echolalia (repetition of the words said to him). On the other hand, Quince's words are individual and garbled, nearly incomprehensible to everyone except my mother, but more frequent and spontaneous. I have always wondered how the same therapy techniques could help two completely different children.

For the next few months, I will be working with ASU professor Dr. David Ingram to track the language development of children with autism as they progress through speech therapy. My goal is to see if children with varying communication challenges respond differently to therapy techniques. I will also be shadowing Quince's therapists at CARD, his ABA (applied behavioral analysis) therapy site. Each week, this blog will be updated with my progress.