Kansas Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center

Welcome to the Kansas Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (KIDDRC) web site. The mission of the KIDDRC is to support high quality basic and applied research relevant to the causes and prevention of intellectual and developmental disabilities. We also support research aimed at the prevention and remediation of some of the many secondary conditions associated with intellectual and developmental disabilities, such as difficulty in language acquisition and behavior problems.
For over four decades our Center, in partnership with the Eunice K. Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and other federal agencies, has played a major role in generating effective behavioral interventions aimed at the causes, prevention, and treatment for intellectual and related developmental disabilities, and in delineating basic knowledge of the underlying biology of typical and atypical development. We have accomplished this by uniting researchers and clinicians in a common effort at three critical sites within the state of Kansas: the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Juniper Gardens Children's Project; and the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City.

— Peter Smith, Co-Director; John Colombo, Director

News and Events

fMRI Workshop August 9-11, 2012
With KUCR/RGS and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Life Span Institute will be sponsoring a 3-day workshop on the use of Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). The workshop will be led by Tor Wager of the University of Colorado-Boulder and Martin Lindquist of Columbia University.
FILLED AS OF 4-19

4-15-12 Merlin Butler finds more evidence of disturbed immune system in autism spectrum disorder

4-19-12 Nancy Brady's development of new assessement tool for children with severe disabilities featured in the ADVANCE for speech-language pathologists.

2-10-12 John Colombo and Susan Carlson longitudinal clinical trial of prenatal DHA refunded. Media coverage.

9-11-12 Colombo and Carlson find enriched infant formulas benefit infant brain – and heart. Media coverage.

The major research and office locations of the KiDDRC. Clockwise: Robert E. Hemenway Life Sciences Innovation Center (2008), the The Robert Dole Human Development Center (1990) and the Children's Campus of Kansas City (2010)