Leonard Abbeduto

Background

About Leonard Abbeduto

Leonard Abbeduto, PhD, is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director Emeritus of the MIND Institute at the University of California, Davis. He also co-directs the NIH-funded Eunice Kennedy Shriver Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center at the MIND Institute. Dr. Abbeduto’s research is focused broadly on the development of language across the lifespan in individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities and the family context for language development. His research has been funded virtually continuously by the National Institutes of Health since 1985. Dr. Abbeduto has published nearly 300 articles, chapters, reviews, editorials, and books on fragile X syndrome, autism, Down syndrome, and other disabilities. His current research is focused on understanding variation in language outcomes in various neurodevelopmental disabilities, the measurement of treatment effects in clinical trials, and the use of distance technology in behavioral treatment. He co-directs the UC Davis Redwood SEED Scholars program, an inclusive postsecondary education program for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Dr. Abbeduto has received numerous awards and honors, including the Kellett Mid-Career Research Award (2008) and Emil A. Steiger Award for Distinguished Teaching (1996), both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the Enid and William Rosen Research Award from the National Fragile X Foundation (2010). He received the 2017 Edgar A. Doll award for distinguished research contribution from Division 33 of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Abbeduto is a fellow of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Division 33 of the American Psychological Association. He earned his PhD in psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1982.