James M. Bebko
PhD (York University), M. Sc. (University of Alberta), B.S. (Purdue University)

SUMMARY OF RESEARCH:

Dr. James Bebko is a Registered Psychologist with a long-standing commitment to the field of autism and developmental disabilities, having worked with children, adolescents and families for more than 25 years. He is Professor and former Director of the Clinical-Developmental Psychology Programme at the Department of Psychology, York University. He has been a Visiting Professor at Universities in Japan, France and the United States. Dr. Bebko has published research articles in some of the major research journals on child development, autism, deafness and language disorders, and has been an invited speaker at a variety of regional and international conferences. He has been a consulting psychologist to many community agencies serving children with autism and developmental disabilities, as well as providing diagnostic, assessment, and consultation services directly to families.

Among the central themes of his research are:

1. The interface between information processing skills and language development., particularly in language-different populations, such as children with autism.
2. Basic cognitive processes associated with the language impairment in autism, including combined auditory-visual processing abilities, and the development of the understanding of symbolic systems, such as the use of pictures, play and language.
3. Research and development of measures to evaluate language proficiency in these children.
4. Higher level information processing skills in autism, such as memory skills and metacognition.
5. Effectiveness of clinical and educational interventions.

PEOPLE WORKING IN HIS LAB:

Thomas Rhee
Jonathan Weiss (Trainee)
April Sullivan (Trainee)
Gayle Goldstein (Trainee)
Adam McCrimmon
Kerry Wells (Trainee)
Kristen McFee (Trainee)

RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS:

Bebko, J.M., Demark, J.L., Weiss, J. & Gomez, P. (2005, in press). Discrimination of temporal synchrony in intermodal events by children with autism and children with developmental delays. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, in press.

Bebko, J.M. & Weiss, J. (2005)? Mental Retardation. In Ammerman, R.T. (Ed.), Volume III: Child Psychopathology. Part of: Hersen, M. and Thomas, J.C. (Chief Eds.), Comprehensive Handbook of Personality and Psychopathology. New York: Wiley.

Bebko, J.M., Demark, J.L., Im-Bolter, N,. & MacKewn A. (2005) Transfer, Control and Automatic Processing in a Complex Motor Task. Journal of Motor Behavior.

Bebko, J.M. & Calderon, R. & Treder, R. (2003) The Language Proficiency Profile-2: Assessing the language and communication skills of deaf children. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education , 8, 438-451. (Invited & refereed)

Goldstein, G. & Bebko, J.M. (2003) The Profile of Multiple Language Proficiencies: A measure for evaluating language samples of deaf children. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education , 8, 452-463.

Bebko, J.M., Perry, A. & Bryson, S. (2003) Commentary: Bebko, Perry, & Bryson on Mostert (2001), Facilitated Communication Since 1995 Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 33, 219-220. (Published with response by original author)

Bebko, J.M., Osborne, P.A., Majumder, S., Demark, J.L., Ricciuti, C. & Rhee, T. (2003) Acquisition and automatization of a complex task. Journal of Motor Behavior, 35, 109-118.

Freeman, N.L., Perry, A & Bebko, J.M. (2002) Behaviour is Communication: Nonverbal communicative behaviour in students with autism and instructors' responsivity. Journal on Developmental Disabilities, 9 (2), 145-155

Bebko, J.M. & Ricciuti, C (2000) Executive Functioning and Memory Strategy Use in Children with Autism: The Influence of Task Constraints on Spontaneous Rehearsal. Autism: An International Journal of Research and Practice, 4, 299-320.

Perry, A., Bryson, S. & Bebko,J.M. (1998) Degree of facilitator influence in FC as a function of facilitator characteristics, attitudes and beliefs. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 28, 87-90.

Bebko, J.M., Wainwright, A. , Brian, J., Coolbear, J. Landry, R. & Vallance, D. (1998) Social Competence and Peer Relations in Children with Mental Retardation: Models of the Development of Peer Relations. Journal on Developmental Disabilities, 6, 1-31.

Bebko, J.M. & Luhaorg, H. (1998) The Development of Strategy Use and Metacognitive Processing in Mental Retardation: Some Sources of Difficulty. In Burack, J.A., Hodapp, R.M. & Zigler, E. (Eds.), Handbook of Mental Retardation and Development. Cambridge, UK:Cambridge University Press. pp 382-407