Welcome
Autism is a developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and
is characterized by problems interacting and communicating with others. In our previous work, we found that
teaching fathers how to talk to and play with their children with autism in a home setting improved communication,
increased the number of intelligible words the youngsters spoke by more than 50 percent and helped fathers get
more involved in their care. This National Institutes of Health project is a four-year study that will expand
training to help fathers learn to communicate more effectively with their children with autism. We hope that in
addition to answering important questions related to autism, interventions and procedural methods in our proposed
work may have wider applications and prove critical in developing future research with a variety of challenging
childhood disorders.
Kelley Murphy recorded a song entitled "Whisper His Name." The song is a testimonial about her son Micah, who has autism. She has shared her song with us, with the hope of bringing the same peace and joy through the grace that Kelley has received. You can download the song in MP3 format, or you can visit Kelley's website to purchase her CD.
The Autism Family Training Project is a four-year study being conducted by the University of Florida's Colleges
of Nursing and Education. This work
is being funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.