Kathy Bourque, PhD

Dr. Bourque is an Associate Research Professor at Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, and has been collaborating with local schools in the KC metro area for the last 20 years. The goals of her research focus on two main areas: (1) developing and examining effective social communication interventions for children ASD in school settings, and (2) assessment approaches for early communication and play skills of preschoolers with ASD/IDD. Her research program has provided strong evidence on the positive effects of peer-mediated interventions to improve social communication and reciprocal interactions for children with ASD, and how to modify strategies for children with complex communication needs learning to use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Dr. Bourque is the Principal Investigator of this project, and is responsible for training all staff, recruiting participants, pre-treatment assessments, observing and collecting child behavior data, and summarizing results for dissemination.