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Kubina receives grant for autism research
Dr. Richard M. Kubina Jr., assistant professor of special education at Penn State, has received $30,000 from the Organization for Autism Research to conduct a project titled Fluency Research for Children with Autism. Penn State Image Resource Center	Just one year after opening its doors, the Organization for Autism Research has awarded research grants totaling $60,000 to two researchers: Dr. Richard M. Kubina Jr., assistant professor of special education at Penn State, and Dr. Robert Stromer, associate professor and senior scientist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. They will each receive $30,000.   For his proposal, titled Fluency Research for Children with Autism, Kubina will examine a critically important aspect of applied behavior analysis, an intervention widely viewed as the most appropriate approach for intervention with children with autism by parents and professionals alike. He hopes to determine whether skills taught to high frequencies of correct responding are more or less likely to be maintained and applied than skills taught to accuracy criteria alone. If so, according to the Organization for Autism Research’s scientific reviewers, Kubina’s proposal has the potential to affect how applied behavior analysis is delivered for each child, and its outcomes would potentially extend to adolescents and adults with autism, as well.   Penn State is a national leader in autism research and outreach. The University hosts one of the largest conferences each year on the treatment of autism: the Summer Autism Institute and National Conference (http://app.outreach.psu.edu/Autism/). In addition, the University offers a graduate certificate program, the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) program (http://www.outreach.psu.edu/statewideprograms/Autism/), to prepare professionals for credentialing examinations of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Kubina is a member of the ABA team. The program is delivered through a combination of videotaped lectures and demonstrations, the Web and e-mail. It is offered by the College of Education, Outreach Office of Statewide Programs, Continuing Education’s State College Office and the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Bureau of Special Education.   The Organization for Autism Research is a nonprofit foundation established in December 2001 by parents, grandparents and relatives of children and adults with autism. Its mission is to use applied research to provide answers to questions that parents, families, teachers, individuals with autism and caregivers face each day.