Seattle, WA – TeachTown, a privately held autism research and technology company, was named a winner of the 2007 Tibbetts Awards for excellence in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) programs. Individuals and companies selected for these national awards are recognized as having provided outstanding SBIR leadership.
Teach Town, founded in 2003, provides an education and language learning platform as well as services specifically designed and developed for children with autism and other cognitive impairments. It was conceptualized by Chief Scientist Dr. Christina Whalen, licensed psychologist, and certified behavior analyst, and developed with Eric Dallaire, and Lars Liden, Ph.D., cognitive and neural systems. Dr. Whalen will accept the award on October 10, 2007 in Washington, DC, and attend the congressional reception on Capitol Hill.
With recent increases in autism prevalence, estimates are now 1 out of 150 births, “We have a rapidly growing school-age autism population that is severely under-served.” says Dr. Chris Whalen, “Our goal is to provide affordable, available, and effective treatment.”
TeachTown received an SBIR (Department of Education) grant in 2004 to develop its first product TeachTown Basics, which was released to the market in March 2006. They also received a “Stepping Stone” grant in June 2007. The company has built up a science advisory board which includes some of the most prominent autism researchers in the US. The results of the first Teach Town: Basics study was published in the Journal of Speech and Language Pathology and Applied Behavior Analysis in March 2006.
SBIR support for product development and research has allowed Teach Town to become the only evidenced based autism treatment technology solution available which provides online synchronization and communication of the child’s activities and progress data. This addresses the main area of pain for service providers and parents which is the ability to; track, report and communicate on a child’s progress. The program includes both on and off computer activities using scientifically-based treatment approaches which are needed to be successful in teaching children with autism. TeachTown allows service providers to serve more children at one time and exceeds mandated education data reporting requirements in all 50 states.
TeachTown is now embarking on a 2 year project and will conduct research studies which will include children with autism or Asperger’s Syndrome, parents, and professionals from the autism community. This research will guide the development of a new education and treatment program targeted at grade levels 2nd – 5th. This innovative treatment will build on the success of TeachTown: Basics, which is now helping hundreds of younger children and being adopted by major school districts across the U.S.
Christina Whalen, PhD, BCBA
(206) 336-5585
chris@teachtown.com
About Teach Town
TeachTown is a privately held company based in Seattle with offices in San Francisco, and is funded by the Washington Research Foundation and private investors led by Richard Fade, founder of the Autism Treatment Network.
For more information about the Tibbetts Award Click Here
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October 15th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I’ve heard very good things about Teachtown and our speech therapist shared some material with us.
Best wishes