Research > Research Program > Grants

NECC is the proud recipient of a number of different grants that support our scientifically-based teaching techniques and state-of-the-art facilities for children with Autism. For more information on our research grants, please feel free to contact us via e-mail.

	Autism Coalition for Research and Education The Autism Coalition for Research and Education (ACRE) made a grant to The New England Center for Children to fund the development of a curriculum database tool for educating students at NECC. The curriculum intranet provides a central location for all teaching protocols used at NECC. This will allow teachers and administrators easy access to standardized programs, which can be individualized to meet the specific needs of their case students. Along with each curriculum sheet comes the ability to summarize student performance data online, to access the programmed stimuli like Mayer Johnson symbols and to eventually view a video of specific teaching procedures. Plans for future dissemination are underway. This is the first grant that NECC has received from the ACRE.
	Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism, Inc. The Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism, Inc. continued its generous assistance to NECC by donating the funds needed for playground equipment for the NECC’s newly built preschool. The Foundation, which was founded by professional football star Doug Flutie and his wife Laurie, is based in nearby Framingham, MA. The equipment that will be bought with this grant will help NECC staff teach young children the skills that will help them succeed in life. This is the third grant that NECC has received from the Foundation.
	Computer Associates Computer Associates recently provided a grant for educational software in all NECC classrooms. The software will enhance our ability to address the individual learning needs of students as they seek greater independence. This is NECC’s second grant from Computer Associates.
	Autism Society of America The Central MA Chapter of the ASA recently provided a grant to purchase touch-screen computers for NECC’s classrooms.
	GE Good Neighbor Fund The GE Good Neighbor Fund has provided a grant for the equipment needed for NECC’s Speech & Language Program. This equipment will help students increase their ability to communicate with others and learn new skills.
	Staples Foundation for Learning The Staples Foundation for Learning has provided a grant to purchase equipment for the Adapted Physical Education Program. The equipment will enable NECC to provide students with the resources they need to gain greater independence in life.
	2008 Research Competition Grant Award from OAR Examination of Prerequisite Skills for Learning Using Video Modeling Rebecca P. F. MacDonald, Ph.D., BCBA William H. Ahearn, Ph.D., BCBA New England Center for Children While video modeling is an effective and efficient instructional technique for many children with autism, there are some children who do not learn using video modeling. In a pilot study, we developed a pre-assessment battery of tests to measure levels of performance on a variety of skills that could influence learning using video modeling and found that poor responding on delayed match-to-sample tasks was associated with failure to learn using video modeling. Delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) is a widely used procedure to measure short term memory and it appears that memory may play an important role in learning using video modeling. In video modeling the child observes the video and then imitates the model. This requires that the child remember the observed actions for the duration of the video and the period of time between the video and the task presentation. We are interested in further investigating the prerequisites for video modeling and to evaluate the role of delayed matching in video modeling. We plan to teach delayed matching to determine whether this could translate into the child then demonstrating learning through video modeling. As part of this project we propose two experiments. In the first study we propose evaluating the relation between delayed match-to-sample performance and imitation of a video model. In the second study we propose teaching delayed match-to-sample to see if this could translate into the child learning through video modeling. This research could lead to a quick way for educators to assess whether video modeling is an appropriate teaching procedure for a specific child and a prescribed teaching method for preparing children to learn using video modeling.