Life Span Institute Blog

For Brian Boyd, director of the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project at the KU Life Span Institute, a passion for autism research ignited at a summer camp job during his undergraduate years. It led to a career dedicated to early interventions for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and a focus on community-based research.

As a volunteer at an Olathe, Kan., nursing home, 19-year-old Isaac Swindler enjoyed helping people by escorting residents to the chapel, bringing them meals, and assisting with laundry. But when the nursing home was forced to limit the number of visitors to the facility in response to the spread of COVID-19, Isaac became one of the millions of Americans to lose his position – and his routine.  

Apprehension is expected before a traveler boards a flight, whether it’s anxiety about airline safety or worrying about a delayed flight.  Yet for people who depend on wheelchairs to move through the world, the possibility of damage to their chairs poses the biggest stressor of them all. Wheelchairs aren’t just an object or item to be checked like a suitcase for a flight; they are an extension of the user and a vital part of their daily lives.

A pioneering research project at KU may one day give voice to individuals robbed of their speech by neuromuscular diseases such as ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. 

The child in the chair looks like she’s preparing to play a video game. She leans toward the monitor in a darkened room, the dim light of the screen illuminating her face. A dot appears on the screen. But instead of zapping the dot with a game controller, she tracks its movement only with her eyes. Throughout the test, a camera mounted to the monitor records the movement in fine detail: the pace, the direction, the focus. 

We have all had moments when we chose to skip the gym and eat the piece of cake or take the extra helping, even though we knew that we wanted to lose weight. These decisions are impacted by delay discounting: in this case, the reward of eating fattening food is immediate, while the pay-off of good health and weight maintenance associated with exercising and avoiding unhealthy foods is largely delayed.

Judith Heumann, internationally recognized disability rights leader and activist will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with the University of Kansas and Lawrence communities and guests worldwide Oct. 28-29. The Life Span Institute is a proud co-sponsor of “ADA 30 – Nothing About Us Without Us – A Celebration with Judith Heumann,” scheduled for Oct. 28-29.

The science website PsyPost recently highlighted findings authored by Michael Amlung published in the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.

Karrie Shogren, director of the KU Center on Developmental Disabilities (KUCDD) will deliver her inaugural presentation as the Ross and Marianna Beach Distinguished Professor of Special Education at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14 in the Kansas Room of the KU Memorial Union.