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This is the first post in (what I plan to be) a series of dissertation updates.  Last fall, with my advisors, I set a goal to have written and submitted my prospectus to my committee by Spring Term 2016.  If I have learned anything (and of course, I have learned many things during my doctoral program), it is that self-imposed deadlines facilitate productive writing and small successes must be celebrated.  Happily, I report that I submitted my proposal (!) and met with them as a committee (!!) for the formal prospectus meeting. The semester begins tomorrow and so today, I am celebrating with a next steps list (the ducks and the row).

Going into the meeting, I anticipated changes to my proposed project.   Particularly after piloting my task with a typically developing kiddo, I knew the task needed to be shorter and more structured.   In addition to discussing how to modify the task, my committee offered suggestions for modifying my analyses, likely using a non-parametric approach.  Most broadly,  we discussed simplifying the project.  I think I am arriving at a more manageable size project that allows me to: 1) have a nice look at how preschool age children initiate requests for communicative repair within a structured context and 2) answers my primary research question – Do preschool age children with ASD differ from their similar age typically developing peers in their initiations of requests for communicative repair following insufficient communicative bids?

Thus, my next steps list includes: creating 1-2 task prototypes that are more structured, shorter in duration, and smaller in scope, putting together a preliminary budget for assessment and other task-related materials, and piloting the task(s) with 2-3 more typically developing children.

At this point, I think I am still gathering the ducks to put them in a row.

Happy Spring Term.