Terry Katz, PhD
Senior Instructor with Distinction
Clinical Psychologist
Developmental Pediatrics, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
How did you become interested in research?
I was fortunate to become involved in research very early in my undergraduate career. I worked with generous and supportive mentors, and I loved the process of identifying questions, developing a research plan, collecting and interpreting the data, and disseminating the results. One of my first projects involved talking with parents about how we could best capture their observations and concerns in a survey about their children’s experiences in school. The parents I talked with were enthusiastic and motivated to talk with me, and I learned to appreciate the power of listening to parents and respecting their experiences and points of view.
What is your area of research?
I am very interested in sleep and autism. The prevalence of sleep problems in autism is very high (up to 80%). Problems with sleep significantly affect our physical health, mood, behavior, and ability to learn. All parents know that when one child in the family is not sleeping well, no one in the family is sleeping well. So, a child’s sleep problems may affect the entire family. My research has focused on assessment and prediction of sleep problems, understanding the ways that poor sleep is related to daytime functioning, and finding ways to support parents who want to help their children sleep better.
In addition to my work in sleep, my research interests include assessment measures, ways to characterize autistic people who have problems with verbal communication, and the value of using family-driven goals in autism intervention. I have also been involved in research that looks at toileting in children with Down syndrome.
Describe current projects and practical implications of your research
I am very excited about a project that will train clinicians (including behavioral, speech/language, and occupational therapists) to coach parents of children on the autism spectrum to help them sleep better. This project will use tools that have been proven to help families, and we will be providing clinicians with ongoing support through Zoom. I am collaborating with sleep experts and researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Emory University, and Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, and we are working with clinicians in Tennessee, Georgia, Colorado, New Hampshire and Vermont. We hope to expand capacity in these states so that more families can get the help they need to improve their children’s sleep. The tools for families will be available in English and Spanish, and we hope to work with families in rural areas as well as those from underrepresented groups.
Publications:
Katz, T. & Reynolds, A.M. (2024). Behavioral Treatments for Sleep Problems in Individuals with DS-ASD. In: Froehlke, M, Sattel, R, editors. When Down Syndrome and Autism Intersect: A Guide to DS-ASD for Families and Professionals, Second Edition, Passion Flower Press.
Richdale, A. L., Shui, A. M., Lampinen, L. A., & Katz, T. (2024). Sleep disturbance and other co-occurring conditions in autistic children: A network approach to understanding their inter-relationships. Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 10.1002/aur.3233. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.3233
Shui, A. M., Lampinen, L. A., Richdale, A., & Katz, T. (2023). Predicting future sleep problems in young autistic children. Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 27(7), 2063–2085. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613231152963
Shui, A. M., Richdale, A. L., & Katz, T. (2021). Evaluating sleep quality using the CSHQ-Autism. Sleep medicine, 87, 69–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2021.08.022