{"id":9324,"date":"2026-08-25T10:42:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T14:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/faculty\/?p=9324"},"modified":"2026-09-03T13:41:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T17:41:52","slug":"kelly-whalon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/faculty\/kelly-whalon\/","title":{"rendered":"Kelly Whalon"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"second_uh_with_3_hs_file.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"1600","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.0 (Yoast SEO v22.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Kelly Whalon - 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Her research focuses on developing and evaluating evidence-based interventions to enhance reading comprehension, emergent literacy, language, and social communication skills for learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and developmental disabilities. She has extensive experience designing shared storybook reading and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interventions, as well as leading federally funded projects through the Institute of Education Sciences and the U.S. Department of Education.","video":"","school":["school-3"],"affiliations":"","primary_interests":[{"primary_interest":"resint-B-012"},{"primary_interest":"resint-B-065"},{"primary_interest":"resint-M-076"}],"research_interests":["resint-B-012","resint-J-014","resint-C-063","resint-B-066","resint-M-077","resint-B-084","resint-F-135","resint-F-181","resint-G-200","resint-K-206","resint-J-210"],"education":[{"edu_or_cert":"Ph.D. in Special Education, Florida State University (2005)"},{"edu_or_cert":"M.S. in Special Education, Florida Gulf Coast University (2000)"},{"edu_or_cert":"B.A. in Psychology, Rhode Island College (1995)"}],"pro_apps":[{"app":"Professor, Special Education, Oklahoma State University (2023\u2013Present)"},{"app":"AJ and Susan Jacques Professor in Special Education, Oklahoma State University (2023\u2013Present)"},{"app":"Program Leader, Special Education, Florida State University (2022\u20132023)"},{"app":"Program Leader, Online Graduate Programs in Autism Spectrum Disorder, Florida State University (2019\u20132023)"},{"app":"Associate Professor, Special Education, Florida State University (2019\u20132023)"},{"app":"Affiliated Faculty, Florida Center for Reading Research (2017\u20132023)"},{"app":"Assistant Professor, School of Teacher Education, Florida State University (2013\u20132017)"},{"app":"Associate Scholar, College of Education, University of Florida (2011\u20132013)"},{"app":"Associate Professor, School of Education, The College of William and Mary (2011)"},{"app":"Assistant Professor, School of Education, The College of William and Mary (2005\u20132011)"}],"activities_and_honors":[{"activity":"AJ and Susan Jacques Professor in Special Education, Oklahoma State University (2023\u2013Present)"},{"activity":"Florida State University College of Education Undergraduate Teaching Award (2016)"},{"activity":"Robert F. Sharpe and Jane A. Sharpe Professorship, Civic Renewal and Social Entrepreneurship (2010)"}],"grants":[{"grant_title":"Developing an Emergent Literacy Adaptive Intervention for Preschoolers with Autism","role":"Co-PI","funding_agency":"Institute of Education Sciences","project_period":"July 2024\u2013June 2028","award_amount":"$1,999,993","project_information":""},{"grant_title":"Project RAISE: Research-based Academic Interventions for Students with Extensive Support Needs","role":"Co-PI","funding_agency":"U.S. Department of Education, OSEP","project_period":"Nov 2019\u2013Oct 2024","award_amount":"$1,090,208","project_information":""},{"grant_title":"KiDDS: K-12 Individuals with Developmental Disabilities","role":"Co-PI","funding_agency":"U.S. Department of Education, OSEP","project_period":"Nov 2019\u2013Oct 2024","award_amount":"$1,244,046","project_information":""},{"grant_title":"Communication for Young Children to Enhance Learning (Project CYCEL)","role":"Co-PI","funding_agency":"U.S. Department of Education","project_period":"Aug 2018\u2013May 2023","award_amount":"$864,580","project_information":""},{"grant_title":"Adaptive Training of Representational Flexibility for Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder","role":"Co-PI","funding_agency":"National Science Foundation","project_period":"Aug 2018\u2013Jul 2020","award_amount":"$299,310","project_information":""},{"grant_title":"ASD-STEM","role":"PI","funding_agency":"U.S. Department of Education","project_period":"Jan 2015\u2013Dec 2019","award_amount":"$934,537","project_information":""}],"publications":{"uncategorized":[{"publication":"Whalon, K., Therrien, M. C. S., Dennis, D. L., & Williams, A. (in press). Parent implemented shared reading with children using AAC: A mixed methods investigation. <i>American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology.<\/i>"},{"publication":"Therrien, M., Whalon, K., Nunes, D., Sellers, A., & Marti, P. (2025). A systematic review of AAC interventions using speech generating devices for autistic preschoolers. <i>Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 41, 1114\u2013128.<\/i>"},{"publication":"Intepe, S., Kang, V., Whalon, K., & Chow, J. (2025). Systematic literature review of vocabulary interventions for children with autism. <i>Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 60, 133\u2013157.<\/i>"},{"publication":"Whalon, K. J., & Fleury, V. P. (2023). Autism and early literacy: The state of the science. In S. Q. Cabell, N. Patton Terry, & S. B. Neuman (Eds.), <i>Handbook on the Science of Early Literacy (pp. 336\u2013346). New York: Guilford Press.<\/i>"},{"publication":"Williams, A., Stover, E. U., Whalon, K., & Fleury, V. P. (2023). Developing reading skills. In R. Pennington & D. Perner (Eds.), <i>A Guide to Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (pp. 101\u2013112). Alexandria, VA: Council for Exceptional Children.<\/i>"},{"publication":"Intepe, S., & Whalon, K. (2023). Teaching emotion vocabulary to children with autism spectrum disorder. <i>Journal of Special Education, 56, 193\u2013207.<\/i>"},{"publication":"Jackson, E., Hanline, M. F., & Whalon, K. (2022). Adapting Shared Reading Interventions for Young Learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder: RECALL. <i>Young Exceptional Children, 5, 30\u201341.<\/i>"},{"publication":"Nunes, D., Whalon, K., Jackson, E., Intepe, S., & Garris, G. (2022). Effects of Dialogic Reading on the Vocabulary Knowledge of Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder. <i>International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 69, 282\u2013301.<\/i>"},{"publication":"Fleury, V. P., Root, J. R., Whalon, K., Stover, E., & Williams, A. (2022). Evidence Based Practices to Teach Academic Skills. In L.C. Chezan, K. Wolfe, & E. Drasgow (Eds.), <i>Evidence-Based Practices for Practitioners Working with Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (pp. 215\u2013242). Rowman & Littlefield.<\/i>"},{"publication":"Fleury, V. P., Whalon, K., Gilmore, C., Wang, X., & Marks, R. (2021). Building comprehension skills of young children with autism one storybook at a time. <i>Language, Speech, & Hearing Services in Schools, 52, 153\u2013164.<\/i>"}],"categorized":null},"links":null,"social_url":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9324"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9622,"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9324\/revisions\/9622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/education.ufl.edu\/faculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}