Juniper Gardens Children's Project

07/31/2026

Way to go Jay, Bryan, and Sean!

Did you catch today's On the Record interview? Kim Murphree at KLWN spoke with KU Life Span Institute staff and scientists about the expertly-trained chatbot designed to connect families in to local resources.

Want to learn more? Stream the show now at: https://loom.ly/nvUIEwM

07/09/2026

Our researchers at Juniper, along with the team at Kansas Family Support Center developed the free Kansas Autism & Disability Resource Navigator, a custom AI chatbot that has already answered more than 1,000 questions from over 500 users across the state about resources and support for individuals with autism.

Learn more about the project and its future here!
🔗:

05/21/2026

Congratulations to Emma Watson on being honored as this year's recipient of the R. Vance and Marilyn Hall Graduate Research Award!

Emma Watson started at Juniper Gardens in 2017 as a research assistant and after a few years of full-time work on projects like Para-Impact, I-Connect, and ASD on the Go, she entered the PhD program in School Psychology at KU.

Emma is a wonderful representative of Juniper Gardens. She has worked hard on complicated studies including taking data at grocery stores, Worlds of Fun and other workplace settings for a study including individuals with autism. She helped lead a study of self-monitoring for an individual with a disability in a KU undergraduate class. She has coded hundreds of hours of videos and conducted direct observations. Emma is conducting her dissertation research through one of the CW-FIT studies and plans to defend next Spring.

The R. Vance & Marilyn Hall Graduate Research Award was established in 2016 to highlight the work and accomplishments of graduate students engaged in research at JGCP.

Please congratulate Emma on this achievement!

04/02/2026

A great shot of the CW-FIT team at last month's MSLBD (Midwest Symposium for Leadership in Behavior Disorders).

CW-FIT engages students and improves instruction time, thus the slogan “More Time to Teach, More Time to Learn”. You can learn more at https://cwfit.ku.edu/.

📧: Cw_fit_ku

03/23/2026

A new episode of All Things Behavior is out today.

The Juniper Gardens Children's Project: A Discussion with Trina Spencer

Links to Access the Podcast
Listen on Apple Podcasts:
https://lnkd.in/ekbsRkzd
Listen on Spotify Podcasts:
https://lnkd.in/ep_5BgBw
Listen on other Platforms:
Search “All Things Behavior”

03/23/2026

With a history that spans typewriters to AI, retired researcher Charles Greenwood looks back at the legacy of community-engaged research at Juniper Gardens Children's Project and its impact on generations of children in families in .

Listen in the discussion on All Things Behavior — and while you're there, check out their latest episode featuring the director of Juniper, Trina Spencer.

03/23/2026

Join our team! 🔗: https://juniper.ku.edu/employment-opportunities

We are seeking 1-2 full-time CW-FIT Research Project Coordinators to expand the evidence-based CW-FIT intervention to rural schools by utilizing a CW-FIT Micro-credentialing program embedded in a Rural Coaching Model. Rural Coaches will be trained by CW-FIT Trainers and will then, in turn, train and support teachers.

03/10/2026

About 2 in 3 fourth-graders in the U.S. fail to read at or above proficiency level. As students struggle with writing and reading comprehension, are we overlooking a key component of literacy?

“Everyone's thinking, ‘Word recognition. We’ve got to teach the kids to read the words on the page,’” says Trina Spencer, Director of Juniper Gardens Children's Project at the KU Life Span Institute. “The problem is that that's not the actual foundation of reading."

Follow the link in comments to learn more.

01/26/2026

Language is necessary for literacy, and children learn language through early interactions with caregivers. Since its founding, Juniper Gardens Children's Project has researched techniques for language interventions in young children.

01/14/2026

For 60 years, the University of Kansas Life Span Institute program has improved children's lives while making strides in research and training early career scientists.