Chattanooga: New Siskin center blazing research trail

Earlier this year, 4-year-old Lillian Benkert, a student at Siskin Children’s Institute, spent all of her recess time sitting near the bushes peacefully inspecting leaves and flowers.

“She loved to be outside, she loved to commune with nature, but she wouldn’t really acknowledge other people around her,” said her mother, Jackie Benkert, a Signal Mountain resident.

But her behavior began to change earlier this year. Diagnosed with autism in 2006, Lillian started to reach out to her fellow students almost immediately after being part of a study involving “video self-modeling.”

The technique allows children to observe themselves caught on video exhibiting positive behaviors that may not come easily to them. This simple act can encourage that behavior by showing children that they are capable of it, said Dr. Tom Buggey, one of three researchers leading a new research center at Siskin.

Each morning, Lillian viewed a video comprised of brief clips of herself laughing and playing with another student on the playground. Almost immediately after the daily viewings began, she began in subtle ways to pursue social interactions on her own, Dr. Buggey said.

“It was amazing,” he said.

With projects like this, the researcher team at Siskin’s new Center for Child and Family Research hopes to make a meaningful difference in the lives of children with disabilities and their families. They say the studies could put Chattanooga on the map as a research destination.

The research center “is helping to take the institute and the city onto the national stage when it comes to early intervention research,” said Dr. Robin McWilliam, one of the researchers now employed by Siskin in its new research center.

In September, Siskin brought on Dr. McWilliam, a leading national figure in the field of early childhood intervention, according to his colleagues. Dr. Amy Casey, who worked with Dr. McWilliam at Vanderbilt University, arrived in October, and the two joined Dr. Buggey, who has been an endowment-supported researcher at Siskin since early 2006.

AN “UNUSUAL” SET-UP

For a team of researchers to be employed by a private provider of education services is certainly not the norm, said Dr. Mark Wolery, professor of special education at Vanderbilt University and a former colleague of Dr. McWilliam.

“That’s real unusual, to Siskin’s credit,” he said. “This is one of the few places in the county where there’s a private not-for-profit who really is into direct service (to children) then hires a couple of researchers.”

In conducting their studies, the researchers will have access to students at Siskin’s two early learning centers, where young children with and without disabilities attend school together. The researchers already have some partnerships under way with the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and other universities and plan to pursue more in the future, they say.

Focusing on children with developmental disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder and Down syndrome, the researchers aim to give teachers, student aides and parents an understanding of how to maximize a child’s time of active involvement in learning, called “engagement,” Dr. McWilliam said.

“A child can’t learn if they are not engaged,” he said.

Research on these and other intervention methods can bring about real improvements in the lives of children with disabilities and their families, the researchers said.

Mrs. Benkert, Lillian’s mother, said she was elated when she noticed that her daughter, who will turn 5 in December, would giggle and talk about her playmates on the way home after school.

“It was one of the first times I remember hearing her mention the names of any of her classmates, then I started to notice she was seeking out interaction with other kids. ... It was kind of thrilling,” she said.

A local academic leader said the new staff members at Siskin and the facility’s redoubled focus on research is a great asset for the city and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga students, who now have more clinical and research options.

“It’s going to be a very exciting opportunity for our students to be associated with (researchers) of this caliber,” said Dr. Mary Tanner, dean of UTC’s College of Health, Education and Professional Studies, where Dr. Buggey and Dr. McWilliam have professor positions.