AAIDD F.Y.I. Talks to Dr. Leonard Abbeduto
Dr. Leonard Abbeduto is the Associate Director for Behavioral Sciences at the Waisman Center located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and new Editor of the American Journal on Mental Retardation (AJMR) published by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD). AJMR is a premier journal in behavioral sciences for the past 100 years and is ranked among the top three journals in special education and rehabilitation, according to the latest industry impact factor rankings. Here, Dr. Abbeduto talks with AAIDD about his new role and vision for AJMR.
AAIDD: Congratulations on your new role! What motivated you to apply for the editorship of the American Journal on Mental Retardation?
Dr. Abbeduto : This is a very exciting time for research on developmental disabilities. Advances in genetics and brain imaging are offering unprecedented insights into the causes and consequences of many developmental disabilities. As a field, we are also increasing the focus on translating our research findings into interventions and treatments using a variety of approaches—from biological to educational approaches. At the same time, we are facing increasingly complex ethical issues and a changing conception of disability. I think AJMR has a critical role to play in reporting and advancing these new research agendas and doing so in a way that respects and improves the lives of people with developmental disabilities and their families. I thought it would be a particularly exciting time to be the editor of AJMR. I also thought that there would be challenges that would help me continue to grow as a scholar. And finally, I have been supported by so many colleagues and individuals with disabilities and their families throughout my career, I believe that I have a responsibility to give something back to the field. Being the editor of AJMR, is a great way to do that.
AAIDD: Over the past several decades, AJMR has retained its position as one of the top journals in social sciences. What in your opinion is the reason for this and what is the core contribution of AJMR to the field of intellectual disability?
Dr. Abbeduto: I believe that there are three reasons for the continued success of AJMR. First, it has maintained its focus on behavioral research, while at the same time welcoming research reflecting new technologies and theoretical frameworks. Second, it is multidisciplinary and thus has broad appeal. Third, the field has been committed to the success of AJMR and thus, researchers at all levels and from all disciplines have continued to submit their work and, importantly, agreed to serve as peer reviewers adhering to the highest scientific standards. Indeed, I think the fact that people in the field want the Journal to succeed and are willing to act on that desire may be the most important ingredient in the success of AJMR. I believe that AJMR will be the premier outlet for behavioral and bio-behavioral science approaches to understanding and treating developmental disabilities for the foreseeable future.
AAIDD: You have been intimately connected with AJMR as an associate editor and book reviewer before taking on this lead role of Editor. What are some of the salient studies published in AJMR that stand out in your mind?
Dr. Abbeduto: There have been many important papers and studies that have been published in AJMR even during my time in the field. Perhaps, more than individual studies, what stands out in my mind are changes in the field, which sometimes were signaled by a single paper but more often by the emergence of new lines of inquiry. One of the most dramatic changes for me has been the focus on syndromes and etiological differences, which is now quite common, but was quite rare when I entered the field in the late 1970s. The dramatic growth of research on families and the ways in which individuals with developmental disabilities affect, and are affected by other members of their families also stands out. Of course, the increasing interest in autism and the ways in which autism is manifested across other conditions associated with intellectual disabilities, such as fragile X syndrome, is also an important and growing focus of research in the field and AJMR. More generally, the increasing attention of researchers to issues of dual diagnosis and co-morbid conditions also stands out to me as very important in our field.
AAIDD: Talking about autism, part of your research at the Waisman Center is focused on autism and intellectual disability. What specific work do you do in that area?
Dr. Abbeduto: We are most interested in understanding the relationship between autism and fragile X syndrome. We are now trying to understand why there is such a high co-morbidity between the two conditions, how the course of language and communication development differs for children with fragile X syndrome with and without autism, and whether the psychological bases of autism are the same in fragile X and non-fragile X cases. We are also looking at the ways in which the combination of fragile X syndrome and autism poses unique challenges for other family members and how families can be supported.
AAIDD: Language and communication among people with intellectual disability has always been the core area of your expertise. How do you explain the tremendous growth of communication disorders as a field in academic and non-academic settings?
Dr. Abbeduto: I think that research on language and communication challenges has remained vibrant for many reasons. First, there have been numerous theoretical debates about the mechanisms that make language learning possible and this has led to an interest in cases in which language learning is less than optimal as a way of gaining insight into causal mechanisms. Research on Williams syndrome, for example, was greatly accelerated by early claims about the sparing of language in affected individuals, which was taken as evidence of the modularity of language. In fact, more recent evidence suggests that the case of Williams syndrome is more nuanced and interesting than first thought. Second, and perhaps more importantly, language and communication are increasingly central to success in daily life. This makes it incredibly important that we understand the extent, nature, and causes of language and communication challenges for people with developmental disabilities. Such understanding is a prerequisite to the development of effective interventions.
AAIDD: In terms of your vision for AJMR, you believe that AJMR should continue to publish high-quality research in behavioral science, but branch out into more inter-disciplinary areas of behavioral genetics and behavioral neuroscience. Can you comment on that?
Dr. Abbeduto: I think it is increasingly rare for important research on developmental disabilities to reflect a single disciplinary perspective or paradigm. Instead, research on developmental disabilities is now collaborative and multidisciplinary. Moreover, it is increasingly the case that research on developmental disabilities integrates traditional behavioral science approaches with methods in neuroscience or genetics. We see this integration, for example, in research on fragile X syndrome in which biological characteristics, such as levels of FMRP expression, are related to behavioral characteristics. We also see this integration in studies using event-related potentials to provide a more nuanced characterization of language problems in Down syndrome and in studies measuring cortisol levels in saliva or heart rate changes in response to environmental events to understand the physiological bases of challenging behaviors in people with intellectual disabilities. In other words, genetics and neuroscience are now an integral part of our research and thus, their inclusion in AJMR is natural at this time . Interestingly, increasing attention to genetics and neuroscience in the field has increased rather than decreased the need for rigorous and theoretically-sophisticated behavioral science approaches to the study of developmental disabilities. Consequently, there will continue to be ample opportunities to publish highly-quality behavioral science research in AJMR.
AAIDD: Why in your opinion, should researchers publish in AJMR?
Dr. Abbeduto: I believe that researchers should publish in AJMR because it has a wide readership—nationally and internationally—and because its high standards and rigorous system of peer review ensure that only scientifically sound research of clinical significance will be published. Thus, a publication in AJMR “means something” to the field.
AAIDD: One of your interests as Editor of AJMR is in recruiting younger people into the field of intellectual disability. Are you seeing fewer researchers now in this field than before? And how would AJMR provide a forum to encourage younger researchers?
Dr. Abbeduto: Well, I guess I'm not convinced (or maybe I don't know the data on this point well enough) that there are actually fewer new investigators studying developmental disabilities than say a decade ago. It may be the case, however, that today these individuals are less concentrated in disciplines that we think of as being focused on developmental disabilities, like special education or even psychology. My guess is that there may be many more young scientists in the biological sciences or in neuroscience studying developmental disabilities than in years past, for example.
In any event, I think that AJMR can play an important role in developing the next generation of leaders in the scientific study of developmental disabilities and in ensuring that they stay in the field. I think this can be accomplished by involving early-career scholars in the editorial processes of the journal. In that vein, I have tried to assemble a slate of associate editors and a board of consulting editors that include not only senior, established scholars, but also include scholars who are early in their careers but have nonetheless proven that they are accomplished, productive, and innovative researchers. These scholars have new ideas and energy that will be beneficial to AJMR. At the same time, I also think that such service to the field early in one's career helps to instill a career-long commitment to developmental disabilities.
Dr. Len Abbeduto can be reached at abbeduto@waisman.wisc.edu.
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