Our second senior is Lena Walker, who is doing amazing fieldwork/research exploring education and special needs. Here’s her update:
I’ve been meeting some (super) cool people. And I’ve been getting to know a lot about autism, ADHD, and learning disabilities by talking and meeting with parents and students and teachers, and by spending time with researchers.
I’ve spent most of my time at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, with my Great Aunt Martha Denckla (she’s a research scientist there, and a professor of Neurology, Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the nearby JHU medical school.) I’ve sat in on conferences full of (difficult!) scientific talk and (crazy-freaky) statistical language (hi Rachel!) But everything is really so fascinating once it starts to make sense (Oh, and there’s some good free food.)
Today, Martha was teaching JHU students how to test for executive functioning. She discussed an interesting case of a young boy who was initially diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, but was later diagnosed with minor ADHD and tourette’s (a VERY unusual case…) Anyway, I’ll have lots to talk about for my presentation. Missing Burke, and can’t wait to see everyone soon.
Thanks for this wonderful description, Lena. We miss you too, but it sounds like you are doing amazing work (and like Kennedy Krieger has an incredible worker! What a gift, all around!). I’m delighted (umm…I think…) that you are finding the statistical work ‘crazy-freaky’ — statistics has been called ‘the art of turning data into information’, and it sounds like that’s just what you are doing!!