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5X����’s Neurodiversity Research Initiative has partnered with the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná (PUCPR), for a three-day seminar on autism research.

The seminar will be held in person on the Kent Campus Feb. 12-14 and will be available virtually for those who cannot attend in person.

Lisa Audet, Ph.D., assistant professor of Speech Pathology and Audiology and director of the Neurodiversity Research Initiative, told Kent State Today the seminar will feature three days of lectures and presentations by researchers and scholars from Kent State and PUCPR discussing contemporary issues in autism and neurodiversity with a focus on cultural comparisons and intercultural learning.

Seminar topics are college students with autism, medical and therapeutic considerations and advocacy and human rights. 

“There’s a lot of interest in Brazil to partner with us at Kent State, specific to our work in the area of autism, which is wonderful,” Audet said.

In 2018, Kent State and PUCPR, located in the city of Curitiba, in the state of Paraná, Brazil, opened the American Academy, a dual-enrollment program that allows students to complete their first two years of undergraduate study in Brazil at the PUCPR campus, taking Kent State classes taught in English by Kent State faculty members, and earning academic credit from both universities simultaneously.

Audet has been collaborating with various educational partners in Brazil for more than 10 years, taking students to Brazil for education-abroad programs, and presenting at international conferences there on autism.

After Kent State formed its partnership with PUCPR, Audet began working with their researchers to come up with ways to increase student interest in studying in Brazil and the seminar was born of those discussions.

Audet said PUCPR offers programs for students who are on the autism spectrum and researchers there perform a lot of autism-related work.

The focus of her work in Brazil has been on the cultural explorations of autism, and how different cultures may perceive and provide intervention for individuals with autism in different ways. Other countries understand the disorder in different ways and have set up support systems to deal with autism differently than in the U.S., she said.

“Brazil’s educational system is set up very differently,” Audet explained. “Children do not receive speech, language and occupational and physical therapy in school, so a child will go to school for half a day, and then receive the rest of their services at a clinic, which is very different than how it’s provided here. Last spring I had a doctoral student who has a clinic north of São Paulo, Brazil, where she provides half-day care to many children with autism.”

The upcoming seminar, Audet said, is a wonderful opportunity for Kent State and PUCPR students to interact, share ideas and understand how other countries are dealing with autism.

“That’s a big reason why we’re having the seminar,” she said.

The seminar will be almost entirely in English, but a translator will interpret one presentation in Portuguese.

The seminar will be held from 9-11:30 a.m. Feb. 12-14 in the Brain Health Research Institute Lobby, located on the lower level of the Integrated Sciences Building on the Kent Campus.

Register for the autism research seminar.

The Neurodiversity Research Initiative, part of Kent State’s Brain Health Research Institute, is a consortium of researchers, educators, health and service professionals, and neurodiverse individuals whose goal is to stimulate and support inclusive and innovative interdisciplinary research and education leading to a broader and deeper understanding of neurodiversity.