M.I.N.D.ful Learning on Trial

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New Software Could Be the Key

By Georgette Jeppesen

When their nephew’s parents died unexpectedly within months of each other in 2000, Veronica Villaseñor and her parole officer husband David became parents to seven-year-old Esteban Marchant.   
     Esteban, diagnosed with autism at age three, could not talk when he came to live with the Villaseñors, and he exhibited the unruly behavior often associated with autism. “Some people say he was like the Helen Keller story, literally a lot of whacking and hitting people because he couldn’t articulate his frustrations and his needs and his wants,” says Veronica, a clinical research coordinator at University of California, Davis’ M.I.N.D. Institute. She adds that despite working with a speech therapist and having tongue-tie surgery to allow for further range of movement and better articulation, Esteban’s language skills remain limited.  
     But the Villaseñors are hoping that a new trial at the institute using computer-based assistive technology tools will take advantage of Esteban’s innate love of electronics to make up for lost time. “If it works, it would bring a lot more language,” she adds. “That’s why we are excited about (his involvement in) this study.”  
     The M.I.N.D Institute was founded in 1997 by Chuck and Sarah Gardner who, with four other local families with neurodevelopmentally challenged children, raised the $6 million needed for start-up. The families shared a common frustration: the lack of a cohesive approach to studying and treating their children’s disorders.  
     Assistive technology refers to any device that will remove barriers that a person facing challenges such as autism, fragile X syndrome and other learning disorders must hurdle to reach his or her full potential. It can include something as simple as a picture of a toilet that a child can show an adult when he or she needs to use the bathroom, all the way through sophisticated software programs that can improve reading and writing skills. The latter is the focus of the study, which is being funded by a grant from the Coleman Foundation and the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.  
     “We think there is a great need in California to really enhance the use of assistive technology for kids and adults with neurodevelopmental disorders,” says institute Medical Director Dr. Randi (pronounced Rondi) Hagerman, who understands firsthand the frustrations of having learning difficulties, having needed a reading tutor while she was in school.  

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