I research the intersection of language, autism, and identity. I seek to understand how people use language to construct our identities, and to learn whether and how autistic people differ in the use of language to that end. I work to establish this destination on the roadmap for teaching language to autistic children: We all have the right to communicate with ourselves and others to establish and assert our identities.
(Note: I use identity-first language like “autistic people,” following recent research which indicates that most members of the autistic community prefer it to person-first language.)
My mission is to listen to and amplify the communication of marginalized people, specifically those on the autism spectrum. The great majority of existing autism research is based on samples of participants who are primarily white, young, and male. As a result, members of other races, ages, and genders may face barriers to accessing appropriate diagnosis and support. My research contributes to a future world where everyone can access the supports they need.
I strongly believe in the value of inductive research methods and community participation to ground our deductive, quantitative work. I believe that conducting qualitative research alongside neurological or implementation research can result in stronger relationships between researchers and the autistic community, as well as research that addresses community priorities. I aim to develop relationships with many stakeholders in the autistic community, both locally and remotely. These relationships can help to ensure that research questions and goals are aligned with community priorities.
I actively look for new opportunities to contribute to the knowledge base surrounding language, autism, and identity, including collaboration with researchers from many backgrounds and disciplines. I am excited by the possibility of growing my competence with additional methodologies and populations so that I can develop a successful program of scientifically robust, community-driven independent research. Hopefully, my research contributions will help to shape a world where everyone has access to the tools and strategies they need to communicate, regardless of diagnosis or identity.
Short summaries of research written in lay language:
Spoken Narratives by Autistic Adults of Under-represented Genders. Dissertation study, 2021.
Peer-reviewed publications are referenced below. Please email me if you want a paper you can't access! I'm happy to share what I can.
Coburn, K. L., & Williams, D. L. (2022). Quantitative analysis of narrative discourse by autistic adults of under-represented genders. Autism in Adulthood. https://doi.org/10.1089/aut.2021.0080
Smitha K. A., Coburn, K. L., Beckerson, M. E., & Kana, R. K. (2022). Amplitude of low frequency fluctuations during resting state fMRI in autistic children. Autism Research. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2846
Coburn, K. L., Kurtz, M. R., Rivera, D., & Kana, R. K. (2022). Behavioral and neurobiological evidence for the effects of reading interventions on autistic children: A systematic review. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104748
Sandberg, C. W., Exton, E., Coburn, K. L., Chun, S., & Miller, C. (2022). Event related potential exploration of the organizational structure of abstract versus concrete words in neurologically intact younger adults. Brain & Language, 230, 105138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2022.105138
Coburn, K. L., & Williams, D. L. (2022). Brief report: Visuospatial and spoken language recall in autism: Preliminary results. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 52, 2831–2837. https://rdcu.be/cnnm9
Coburn, K. L., Jung, S., Ousley, C. L., Sowers, D. J., Wendelken, M., & Wilkinson, K. (2021). Centering the family in their system: A framework to promote family-centered AAC services. AAC, 37(4), 229-240. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434618.2021.1991471
Coburn, K. L., & Williams, D. L. (2020). Development of neural structure and function in autism spectrum disorder: Implications for learning language. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 29, 1783-1797. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_AJSLP-19-00209
MISLEAD: A Thematic Analysis of How Neurodiverse Young Adults Detect Lies
Qualitative study of the reasons provided by young adults for deciding whether a video-recorded speaker was lying or telling the truth
Results of thematic analysis presented as a poster at ASHA 2022
Mixed-methods analysis of experimental data in progress
Spoken Narratives by Autistic Adults of Under-represented Genders
Dissertation study (successfully defended June 15, 2021)
Mixed-methods study of narrative production
Qualitative discourse analysis
Quantitative statistical analysis
Verbal Encoding and Visuospatial Recall in Autism
Experimental study comparing immediate recall of an event in different communication modalities.
Participants "show" and "tell" what happened in each of a series of short animations.
Preliminary results published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders