{"id":29818,"date":"2014-04-23T10:20:35","date_gmt":"2014-04-23T14:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=29818"},"modified":"2017-09-26T11:33:24","modified_gmt":"2017-09-26T15:33:24","slug":"rather-rare-wright-state-psychology-researcher-shines-light-on-unusual-genetic-disorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2014\/04\/23\/rather-rare-wright-state-psychology-researcher-shines-light-on-unusual-genetic-disorder\/","title":{"rendered":"Wright State psychology researcher shines light on unusual genetic disorder"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Roshni<\/a>

Graduate student Roshni Rao’s research led to recommendations for useful interventions for children with a rare genetic disorder.<\/p><\/div>\n

It was a very rare case. An 11-year-old boy was suffering from a genetic developmental disorder resulting from triplication of part of his second chromosome. It hampered his motor skills and made it difficult for him to communicate, make friends and care for his personal hygiene.<\/span><\/p>\n

The case fell into the lap of Roshni Rao, a graduate student in Wright State\u2019s School of Professional Psychology. What she did with it promises to send ripples through the field of child neuropsychology and help families, schools and health professionals understand this genetic disorder within children much better.<\/p>\n

The child was a patient of Julie Miller, a board-certified pediatric neuropsychologist at Wallace-Kettering Neuroscience Institute in Kettering, Ohio. Miller and Rao conducted a battery of neuropsychological tests with the boy and came up with a profile. Their research broke down all of the boy\u2019s skills within different domains, including memory, attention and adaptive skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nice thing was that he had a lot of strengths. That was the exciting part,\u201d Rao said. \u201cHe will be able to succeed with some help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miller and Rao proposed potential areas of strength for children afflicted with the disorder such as visual memory, visual constructional skills like drawing and copying, and basic verbal skills based upon this child\u2019s profile. They then crafted recommendations on how to provide useful interventions, primarily within his educational setting.<\/p>\n

In February, Rao presented her research as lead author at the International Neuropsychological Society conference in Seattle, which attracted hundreds of neuropsychologists and researchers from around the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the professionals at the conference came up to me and said, \u2018I\u2019ve been seeing these rare forms of genetic disorders and I\u2019m not really sure what to expect.\u2019 This was a nice way to propose what one might expect,\u201d Rao said.<\/p>\n

During the conference, the editor of the Clinical Neuropsychologist, <\/em>a major journal in the field, approached Rao and asked her to write up her research findings for publication so they can be used as a reference. Miller and Rao are planning to work with a geneticist to produce a case study for publication.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are only a handful of studies in the literature that examine partial trisomy in this specific location on chromosome 2,\u201d Rao said. \u201cThat\u2019s the significance of our research and what is so exciting about contributing this information to the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ultimate goal is to improve the lives of children and their families affected by disabilities,\u201d added Miller. \u201cIndividual case studies where relative strengths and weaknesses can be identified are an essential starting point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rao grew up in Tampa, Fla., the daughter of a cardiologist and a research chemist. When she was a pre-med student at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, she took a child psychology class from a doctoral student who was teaching a class on hospitalized children. Rao fell in love with clinical child psychology.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me it combined everything that I wanted,\u201d she said. \u201cIt had that human element. It had a lot of intervention. It had all the pieces of solving this puzzle of piecing together both strengths and weaknesses of the child. It also had the piece of being able to work with medical and developmental disorders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rao pursued her master\u2019s degree at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, working under a faculty member who specialized in children with autism, a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication and repetitive behavior.<\/p>\n

At Vanderbilt, Rao designed a way to help hospitalized children with neurodevelopmental disorders by using visuals and teaching nurses and other caregivers how to use them. For example, in order to reduce their anxiety, the children were shown videos of clinic procedures such as how blood pressure is taken.<\/p>\n

Rao arrived at Wright State and SOPP in 2012, beginning work on her doctorate.<\/p>\n

She wants to eventually work at a children\u2019s hospital, helping children with neurodevelopmental disorders and disabilities. She also wants to become an advocate for them. She is currently advocacy chair of the Ohio Psychological Association of Graduate Students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe exciting thing is that when you assess and intervene with these children, you see where they need help and can provide them with recommendations on how to get that kind of help,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd they do make gains and have their own unique strengths that contribute to society and are influential in our world. I see potential in all of these children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rao, who works in SOPP\u2019s clinic at the Duke E. Ellis Institute for Human Development in Dayton, says the favorite part of her academic career right now is conducting feedback sessions with family members following the diagnosis of their child.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually they are very nervous. It is really stressful for parents to parent children with disabilities and many parents come to psychologists because they don\u2019t know what to do,\u201d Rao said. \u201cWhen you show them the child\u2019s strengths and give them the tools, they feel competent. They feel empowered and the child feels empowered.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Graduate student Roshni Rao’s research leads to recommendations for useful interventions for children with a rare genetic disorder. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":29819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,2060,725,715,2407,18,4298],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-graduate","category-home-news-sidebar","category-news","category-professional-psychology","category-research","category-student-profile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29818"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48114,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29818\/revisions\/48114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}