Brooke Ingersoll

Associate Professor of Psychology Michigan State University

  • East Lansing MI

Brooke Ingersoll is an expert on the development, evaluation and dissemination of social communication interventions for people with autism.

Contact

Michigan State University

View more experts managed by Michigan State University

Media

Biography

Dr. Ingersoll's research focuses on the development, evaluation, and dissemination of social communication interventions for individuals with autism. She also conducts research on the impact of ASD on the family and the broader autism phenotype. A major emphasis of her current work is on the development of community-focused, parent-mediated interventions for young children with ASD.

Areas of Expertise

Austism Spectrum Disorders (Asd)
Autism

Education

University of California

Ph.D.

Psychology

2003

University of California

M.A.

Psychology

1999

University of Michigan

B.A.

Psychology & French

1996

News

3 ways COVID-19 may reshape how kids with autism learn

Futurity  online

2021-04-30

The shift to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic has presented significant challenges for all children and parents, but especially for kids with autism. Children with autism often struggle with changes in routine and the engagement required for remote instruction. Brooke Ingersoll, a professor of psychology at Michigan State University and director of the MSU Autism Lab, has worked closely with providers throughout the pandemic to ensure children received proper interventions with minimal interruption. Recognizing these challenges and the stress on families, Ingersoll says the transition to remote learning and telehealth has also opened the door for some positive changes in service delivery for children with autism by increasing access to services. She is hopeful that these positive changes will continue into the future, even after the threat of COVID-19 passes.

View More

Journal Articles

A Comparison of Developmental Social–Pragmatic and Naturalistic Behavioral Interventions on Language Use and Social Engagement in Children With Autism

JSLHR

2012

Developmental social–pragmatic and naturalistic behavioral interventions share a number of features, but they differ in their use of facilitative strategies and direct elicitation of child language. In this study, the authors investigated whether these approaches produce different language and social outcomes in young children with autism.

View more

Brief report: effect of a focused imitation intervention on social functioning in children with autism

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

2012

Imitation is an early skill thought to play a role in social development, leading some to suggest that teaching imitation to children with autism should lead to improvements in social functioning. This study used a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effect of a focused imitation intervention on initiation of joint attention and social-emotional functioning in 27 young children with autism. Results indicated the treatment group made significantly more gains in joint attention initiations at post-treatment and follow-up and social-emotional functioning at follow-up than the control group. Although gains in social functioning were associated with treatment, a mediation analysis did not support imitation as the mechanism of action. These findings suggest the intervention improves social functioning in children with ASD.

View more

Evaluation of a Sibling-Mediated Imitation Intervention for Young Children with Autism

Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions

2012

Parents and peers have been successful at implementing interventions targeting social interactions in children with autism; however, few interventions have trained siblings as treatment providers. This study used a multiple-baseline design across six sibling dyads (four children with autism) to evaluate the efficacy of sibling-implemented reciprocal imitation training. All six typically developing siblings were able to learn and use contingent imitation, four of the six siblings were able to learn and use linguistic mapping, and all six siblings increased their use of at least one component of the imitation training procedure. Three of the four children with autism showed increases in overall imitation and all four showed evidence of increases in joint engagement. Parents and siblings reported high satisfaction with the intervention and ratings by naïve observers indicated significant changes from pre- to post-treatment. These results suggest that sibling-implemented reciprocal imitation training may be a promising intervention for young children with autism.

View more

Show All +