Dr. Lauren Hampton, an assistant professor in the Department of Special Education, has dedicated her career to transforming the lives of young children experiencing behavioral and communication delays, including those on the autism spectrum, through early childhood intervention. She is a strong advocate for autism awareness and research funding whose passion is readily apparent in her innovative studies and projects within this field.
Many of Dr. Hampton’s projects recognize the importance of the family dynamic in working with autistic children. For that reason, she is focused on preparing students at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels to become the next generation of leaders in early childhood special education with the knowledge to not only support the child, but the family and caregivers as well.
If we can give the parent tools to be more mindful and present with their child…they will be able to have stronger engagement with their children in those shared moments of interaction.
Dr. Lauren Hampton
In addition to her work at the College of Education, Dr. Hampton directs the Little Longhorn Lab, which currently hosts various research initiatives and programs including SibWatch, Project EARLY and the SMART project. All are dedicated to providing holistic support to young autistic children through training for future autism interventionists and providing personalized resources and strategies for families.
Dr. Hampton serves as the principal investigator of SibWatch, an online program that she designed to optimize intervention for toddler siblings of autistic children. While the siblings in the study do not have a diagnosis or identified disability, they are at a higher likelihood for developing language and communication delays. SibWatch provides comprehensive support to families and caregivers through an ongoing evaluation of the child’s development, twice-weekly meetings, progress reports and family coaching.
Project EARLY spans across three separate universities—The University of Texas at Austin, Kansas University and Hunter College CUNY. It provides robust training for doctoral-level students in policy and early intervention to address the questions at the forefront of early childhood intervention, such as access, service delivery, identification and more. Students within the program are thoroughly prepared to serve as higher education faculty in the fields of early intervention (EI) and early childhood special education (ECSE).
Most recently, one of Dr. Hampton’s research projects is a collaboration with Northwestern University to evaluate individual differences within interventions through a sequential multiple assignment randomized trial (SMART). The objective holds true to Dr. Hampton’s overall goal—to optimize outcomes for children and their families.
