SPAN Lab at MGH Institute of Health Professions

06/12/2024

We are excited to share that our new research space at Constitution Wharf is open! We are so fortunate to have such a beautiful space to see our wonderful participants in. Our leader Karen Chenausky is featured in this excellent summary of research currently ongoing at MGH IHP!

Earlier this year, MGH Institute opened the doors of its brand-new, 35,000-square-foot research space at One Constitution Wharf. Equipped with labs and offices designed to serve faculty and student researchers across campus, the new facility is the culmination of more than a decade of research growt...

05/01/2024

We were excited to get to present some of our first pilot results from our study ASAP (Autism Spectrum Auditory Perception) at Research and Scholarship Day last week. We are grateful to be a part of such a strong and collaborative research community at IHP!

The faculty at the MGH Institute of Health Professions have a well-established history of exploring independently a wide variety of research approaches within specialized areas of the health professions. While some researchers informally and occasionally worked with colleagues, there hadn’t been a...

03/19/2024

Happy (almost) spring to our wonderful community! 🌷 We are excited to have three studies open and currently seeking participants at our lab in Charlestown, MA. Check out our website for more information, or reach out to us at SPANlab@mghihp.edu!

At SPAN, we are interested in understanding why many children with neurodevelopmental disorders don’t learn to talk on their own. Our work so far has concerned minimally verbal autistic children, but they are far from the only ones whose spoken language development is affected. Our ultimate goal i...

12/13/2023

We hope everyone is having a happy holiday season! We are excited to share that we have three studies currently open and enrolling going into 2024. We hope you'll check us out and please reach out to SPANLab@mghihp.edu if you would like to connect for more information:

https://www.mghihp.edu/research/labs-facilities/span-lab/participate-our-research

We are also very excited to share that our speech treatment study is now open and seeking participants with autism ages 5-18. Please feel free to reach out to SPANLab@mghihp.edu for more information! We would love to tell you more about it.

05/24/2023

We are really excited to share that our latest study and collaboration with Boston University is up and running! We are looking for families of children ages 2-18 with a genetic or neurodevelopmental diagnosis in the Boston area to participate. Please feel free to reach out to us at SPANLab@mghihp.edu with any questions or to find our more about joining! Thank you!

05/04/2023

MGH Institute of Health Professions shared a wonderful feature of Karen's research this week. We are very proud of her hard work and leadership!

It may seem like a contradiction in terms to talk about helping minimally verbal children with autism speak more, but that’s exactly the research Karen Chenausky is pursuing.

05/04/2023

Love this resource from Apraxia Kids for Apraxia Awareness month!

It’s May 1st, which means it's the first day of Apraxia Awareness Month!

This year our theme is: “Find Hope, Give Hope”! Follow along with us all month long to share in daily activities and stories. We will be celebrating our amazing Apraxia Stars and sharing resources with our community along the way. We hope that this month you are able to FIND HOPE and GIVE HOPE!

Learn more here: https://www.apraxia-kids.org/awareness/

03/27/2023

Thank you Simons Searchlight for another great feature about the director of our lab, Karen Chenausky and her wide-ranging work with children with neurodevelopmental conditions 🧠

We interviewed Karen Chenausky about her research projects and collaboration with Simons Searchlight.

03/20/2023

Thank you Apraxia Kids for helping get the word out about our treatment study for children with autism and CAS! 🎉

This study is exploring if a modified treatment approach for CAS is effective on children aged 5-18 years who are minimally verbal and have autism.

Contact the SPAN Lab at MGHIHP at
617-726-2405 or IHPSPANLab@MGB.org

03/17/2023

We are also very excited to share that our speech treatment study is now open and seeking participants with autism ages 5-18. Please feel free to reach out to SPANLab@mghihp.edu for more information! We would love to tell you more about it.

03/17/2023

We are excited to share that our study about auditory perception in autism is open now and seeking participants ages 5-12! Please feel free to share or send an email to SPANLab@mghihp.edu if you are interested in joining the study or finding out more information about it. Thank you!

02/07/2023

We are very proud of our lab leader, Karen Chenausky's feature in the Spectrum: Beyond the Bench series this fall!

You can read more about how her passions for her work in speech-language for children with neurodevelopmental conditions and rowing connect in this great article.

Karen Chenausky was one of many researchers who joined the family and research conference this past summer. She shares more about her experience attending and meeting families. Read more on Spectrum: bit.ly/3TNb1UI

02/02/2023

Welcome! We’re so glad you’re here.

At the SPAN Lab (Speech in Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders), we are interested in understanding why many children with neurodevelopmental disorders don’t learn to talk on their own.

Our work so far has concerned minimally verbal autistic children, but they are far from the only ones whose spoken language development is affected. Our ultimate goal is to improve communication outcomes for children at risk for being minimally verbal.

Follow us or check out our website to hear more about our work!

At SPAN, we are interested in understanding why many children with neurodevelopmental disorders don’t learn to talk on their own. Our work so far has concerned minimally verbal autistic children, but they are far from the only ones whose spoken language development is affected. Our ultimate goal i...