Boston & Amherst area autism research study announced

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Abigail Leibovitch, a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts, is researching perspective-taking skills among children with autism. Below is her call for participants:
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My name is Abigail Leibovitch and I am a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst researching perspective-taking skills among children with autism. I am currently conducting a study that explores how well children with autism are able to make emotion-based inferences when compared to their typically developing peers. I will be the principal investigator under the supervision of my dissertation advisor Dr. William Matthews, professor, School Psychology Program, School of Education, University of Massachusetts.

For this study, I am seeking study participants who meet the following criteria:
• Girls or boys between 8 and 11 years of age with a diagnosis of High-Functioning Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, or Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified
• IQ score of 70
• No hearing or vision problems that can't be corrected (glasses OK)

Participation in the study will involve a commitment of approximately one and a half to two hours and most testing will occur at the University of Massachusetts campus in Amherst, MA. If this poses a problem for your family, however, a more convenient alternative location can be found. During this time, your child will be administered a number of different measures designed to examine their expressive and receptive language ability and their ability to make emotion-based inferences from written and visual cues. You will be provided the results of the study to review upon its completion.

We believe that this research will help us to better understand perspective-taking skills among children with autism and we hope to use these results to help shape future social skills programming that targets this population. Your child’s participation is very valuable and greatly appreciated. As a token of our appreciation, we will be giving each participant a $10 gift certificate to Barnes and Nobles.

If you would like your child to participate in this study please contact me at 845-863-9011 or at [email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns, I would be happy to discuss the project with you further. I can be reached at the above e-mail address and phone number.