Dr. Richard R. Saunders

Ph.D., Developmental and Child Psychology
University of Kansas

Senior Scientist

University of Kansas
Life Span Institute at Parsons

Mailing Address:
1052 Dole Building
1000 Sunnyside Drive
Lawrence, Kansas 66045
rrsaun@ku.edu

Areas of Interest

Intellectual, physical and developmental disabilities—communication thru adaptive switch technology, supported routines, health promotion, weight-loss interventions

University Affiliations

Parsons Research Center

Research and Training Center on Independent Living

Weight Management Center

Kansas Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Center

Recent Grants

Principal Investigator: Communication of People with Mental Retardation
Agency: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Type: P01 (HD18955, Years 21-25) Period: April 10, 2007 – March 31, 2012
Objective: To discover ways to prevent or remediate incomplete language development often associated with intellectual disabilities.

Principal Investigator: Reducing the Incidence of Obesity in Adults with Developmental Disabilities in Kansas
Agency: Kansas Council on Developmental Disabilities/Administration on Developmental Disabilities
Type: DDP 07-831 Period: October 1, 2006-September 30, 2009
Objective: To assist overweight adults with developmental disabilities to lose weight. Methods, results, and lessons learned with these participants are updated at www.diet.ku.edu.

Principal Investigator: Closing the Loop: Exploring Best Practices in Healthy Athletes Referral Follow-up
Agency: Special Olympics International
Type: Contract Period: January 15, 2010-January 15, 2011
Objective: To examine follow-up to dental screening recommendations by Special Olympics Athletes

Co-Investigator: Weight Loss by Individuals with Physical Disabilities
Agency: Department of Education, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research
Type: FIR Period: October 1, 2009-September 30, 2012
Objective: To compare the NHLBI (recommended care) diet with a meal replacement diet with adults with mobility impairments.

Co-Investigator: Weight Loss and Maintenance by Adults with IDD
Agency: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
Type: R01 Period: September 1, 2010-August 31, 2015
Objective: To compare the NHLBI (recommended care) diet with a meal replacement diet with adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

Representative Publications and Presentations

Mellstrom, B. P., Saunders, M. D., Saunders, R. R., & Olswang, L. B. (2005). Interaction of biobehavioral state and microswitch use in individuals with profound impairments. Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities, 17, 35-53.

Saunders, R. R., Chaney, L., & Marquis, J. (2005). Equivalence class establishment with two-, three-, and four-choice matching to sample by senior citizens. The Psychological Record,55, 539-559.

Saunders, R. R., McEntee, J. E., Saunders, M. D. (2005). Interaction of reinforcement schedules, a behavioral prosthesis, and work-related behavior in adults with mental retardation. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 38, 163-176 .

Saunders, R. R., Spradlin, J. E., & Sherman, J. A. (2006). The communication of people with mental retardation program project. In R. L. Schiefelbusch & S. R. Schroeder (Eds.), Doing science and doing good (pp. 351-369). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.

Saunders, R. R., Saunders, M. D., Struve, B., Munce, A. L., Olswang, L. B., Dowden, P. A., & Klasner, E. R. (2007). Discovering indices of contingency awareness in adults with multiple profound disabilities. American Journal on Mental Retardation, 112, 246-260.

Saunders, R. R. (2007). Residential and day services. In J. W. Jacobson, J. A. Mulick, & Rojahn, J. (Eds.). Handbook of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, (pp. 209-226). New York: Springer.

de Souza, S., Goyos, C., Silvares, E. F. M., & Saunders, R. R. (2007). Emergence of printing and spelling skills from constructed-response matching-to-sample instruction (CRMTS). European Journal of Behavior Analysis, 8, 49-64.

Elias, B, C., Goyos, C., Saunders, M., & Saunders, R. (2008). Teaching manual signs to adults with mental retardation using matching-to-sample procedures and stimulus equivalence. The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, 24, 1–13.

Saunders, M. D., Questad, K. A., Cullinan, T. B. & Saunders, R. R. (2011), Adapted digital music players for individuals with severe impairments. Behavioral Interventions, 26(2), 161–166.

Saunders, R. R., Saunders, M. D., Donnelly, J. E., Smith, B. K., Sullivan, D. K., Guilford, B., & Rondon, M. F. (2011). Evaluation of an approach to weight loss in adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 49(2), 103-112.

Saunders, R. R., & Saunders, M. D (2011). Innovation of a reinforce preference assessment with the difficult to test. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 32(5), 1572-1579. [Presently online at: http://www.sciencedirect.com.www2.lib.ku.edu:2048/science/journal/08914222]

Current Professional Service

Consulting Editor, American Journal on Mental Retardation

Board of Editors, Behavioral Interventions

Board of Editors, Research in Developmental Disabilities