Technology Tools for Students with Autism

Katharina I. Boser, Ph.D., received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Cornell University in developmental psychology and cognitive science and wrote her dissertation about the early development of child language. She completed postdoctoral work at the University of Maryland studying language rehabilitation using computing technologies for patients with aphasia. In 2000, she joined the research faculty at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Cognitive Neurology, where until 2005 she studied language training with low-verbal subjects and cognition (number representation, memory, and visual attention) in children with autism. She has conducted research on social robots and is involved in usability research with technology companies developing computer software for use with children with autism and other cognitive and/or learning issues. She was a board member and later cochair of the Innovative Technologies for Autism initiative for Autism Speaks until 2011. Dr. Boser is president of Individual Differences in Learning, an educational nonprofit in Maryland that provides professional development to teachers and parents regarding brain-based teaching techniques and innovative technologies for students with a range of cognitive impairments, including autism and twice exceptionality. She presents at many national and international conferences on autism technology research and cognition and advocates for universal design for learning and 21st century learning and teaching at state and national levels. Since the fall of 2011, she has been a technology coordinator for the Glenelg Country School in Ellicott City, Maryland. Matthew S. Goodwin, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at Northeastern University with joint appointments in the Bouve College of Health Sciences and College of Computer & Information Science, where he coadministers a new doctoral program in personal health informatics. He is a visiting assistant professor and the former director of clinical research at the MIT Media Lab. Goodwin serves on the executive board of the International Society for Autism Research, is chair of the Autism Speaks Innovative Technology for Autism initiative, and has adjunct associate research scientist appointments at Brown University. Goodwin has over 15 years of research and clinical experience at the Groden Center working with children and adults on the autism spectrum and developing and evaluating innovative technologies for behavioral assessment and intervention, including telemetric physiological monitors, accelerometry sensors, and digital video and facial recognition systems. He received his B.A. in psychology from Wheaton College and his M.A. and Ph.D., both in experimental psychology, from the University of Rhode Island. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in affective computing in the Media Lab in 2010. Brooke Ingersoll, Ph.D., BCBA, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Michigan State University, 105B Psychology Building, East Lansing, Michigan 48824. Dr. Ingersoll is an assistant professor at Michigan State University, where she heads the Autism Research Laboratory. Her research is focused on social-communication development and interventions aimed at improving social-communication deficits in children with autism. She is a licensed psychologist and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Howard Shane, Ph.D., is the Director of the Center for Communication Enhancement at Children's Hospital Boston and an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. He has received the Honors of the Association from ASHA and is widely published on assistive technology and autism. Sarah C. Wayland, Ph.D., is a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland's Center for Advanced Study of Language and a faculty affiliate in the Special Education Program in the College of Education. She has worked on issue