Heike Lehnert-LeHouillier, an assistant professor in the Communication Disorders department, which is housed at New Mexico State University’s College of Education, recently received the college’s Emerging Scholars award, which consists of funding to help jumpstart research. (NMSU photo by Josh Bachman)

Heike Lehnert-LeHoillier, an assistant professor in the Communications Disorders department at New Mexico State University, speaks with two of her students, Celinda Acosta, center, and Laura Benitez, left, who are helping conduct research on speech patterns in children and teens diagnosed with autism. (NMSU photo by Josh Bachman)

An assistant professor at New Mexico State University has received funding to begin research on characteristics of speech patterns in children and teens diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, a neurodevelopment disorder that is estimated to affect one in 40 children in the U.S.

Heike Lehnert-LeHouillier is an assistant professor in the Communication Disorders department, which is housed at NMSU’s College of Education. Recently, Lehnert-LeHouillier received the college’s Emerging Scholars award, which consists of $4,000 in funding to help jumpstart research studies.

This summer, Lehnert-LeHouillier is leading five undergraduate research assistants in gathering data from youth between the ages of 9 and 16, including youth who have been diagnosed with autism. They will be compared to their peers who have average language and cognitive abilities. The funding from the Emerging Scholars award will be used to pay participants for their time, and to also pay research assistants.

“It has long been noted that individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders show speech patterns, especially intonation, that is perceived as atypical,” Lehnert-LeHouillier said. “Unfortunately, most of the research that is currently available is not very conclusive about what it is exactly about these intonation patterns that makes the speech of many individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder different from a typical developing person.”

Lehnert-LeHouillier said she is interested in looking at how children with and without ASD use speech intonation differently as it relates to communicating with a partner. She has reached out to the local community to let families know about her study and invite them to participate. So far, she has six participants signed up and is looking for additional participants, who will be given a $10 Walmart gift card for every hour of participation.

Participant testing, which consists of determining the language and cognitive abilities of each child, began Tuesday. Lehnert-LeHouillier and her undergraduate research assistants will conduct their research over the summer, then begin analyzing data this fall. Lehnert-LeHouillier said she hopes to have preliminary findings by the end of the year, and is already looking for sources of additional funding to continue her research beyond next spring.

“Hopefully we’ll find some very interesting things, and get a better handle of the differences in speech intonation,” Lehnert-LeHouillier said. “We hope to identify features that may help in the diagnosis of kids with high-functioning autism, who are often diagnosed much later than those affected more severely by the disorder.”

For more information on how to participate in the study, email benfer@nmsu.edu.