Faculty Directory

Kristen Bottema-Beutel

Professor

Photo of Kristen Bottema-Beutel

Kristen Bottema-Beutel

Ph.D.

Contact

Campion Hall Room 113

Telephone: 617-552-0368

Email: kristen.bottema-beutel@bc.edu

ORCID

Education

  • Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley
  • M.A., San Francisco State University
  • B.S., University of Michigan

Courses

Contemporary Issues: Neurodiversity, Ableism, and Learning

Discourse Analysis

Foundations of Autism

Educating Autistic Students

Dissertation Seminar in Curriculum and Instruction

Research Interests

Social interaction dynamics in autistic children, youth, and adults; educational strategies to promote peer interaction, social development, and academic engagement in autistic youth; social and language development in young autistic children; decision making processes regarding peer inclusion, research ethics, research quality.

Expertise

  • Cognitive and Social Development
  • Disabilities & Special Education
Curriculum Vitae

Department

TCS Teaching, Curriculum, and Society

Profile

Kristen Bottema-Beutel (she/her) pairs qualitative and quantitative research methods to better understand autistic communication, language, and sociality, and to develop school-based strategies to support autistic students' inclusion. More recently, she has explored meta-science topics such as researcher ethics and research quality in intervention research for autistic children and youth, and ableism in autism research more generally. She is a deputy editor of the journal Autism in Adulthood and an Associate Editor of the journal Autism.

Dr. Bottema-Beutel is the director of the master's level autism certificate, a program that prepares future special educators to support autistic students, and is the director of the Ph.D. program in Curriculum and Instruction.

She earned her master鈥檚 degree from San Francisco State University and her doctorate from University of California, Berkeley. Before joining the Lynch School in 2013, she was the IES Postdoctoral Fellow in Special Education Intervention Research at Vanderbilt University in the Department of Special Education.

Publications

Bottema-Beutel, K., Guo, R., Hinson-Williams, J., Shen, Y., LaPoint, S.C., Woynaroski, T., & Sandbank, M. (in press). Conceptualizing and measuring 鈥減roblem behavior鈥� in early intervention autism research: A Project AIM secondary systematic review. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.听

Bottema-Beutel, K., Zisk, A.H., Zimmerman, J., & Yu, B. (2025). Editorial: Conceptualizing and describing autistic language: Moving on from 鈥渧erbal鈥�, 鈥渕inimally-verbal鈥�, and 鈥渘on-verbal鈥�. Autism, 29(6), 1367-1373.

Bottema-Beutel, K. (in press). Methodological considerations for incorporating students with disabilities into educational psychology theory and practice. Educational Psychologist.

Bottema-Beutel, K., Sasson, N.J., McKinnon, R., Braun, C., R.,Guo, R., Hand, B., Kapp, S., Espinas, D.R., Bailin, A., Lester, J.N., & Yu, B. (2024). Recognizing and resisting ableist language in schools: Suggestions for school-based speech language pathologists and related professionals. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in the Schools, 55(4), 1025-1038.

Bottema-Beutel, K. (2024). Putting autism research in social contexts. Autism, 28(7), 1597-1601.

Bottema-Beutel, K., McKinnon, R., Mohiuddin, S., LaPoint, S.C., & Kim, S.Y. (2024). Problems with 鈥減roblem behavior鈥�: A secondary systematic review of intervention research with transition-age autistic youth. Autism, 28(8), 1872-1888.

Sandbank, M., Bottema-Beutel, K., La Point, S.C., Feldman, J.I., Barrett, D.J., Caldwell, N., Dunham, K., Crank, J., & Woynaroski, T. (2023). Autism intervention meta-analysis (Project AIM) 2: A living systematic review and meta-analysis of each childhood autism intervention studies. The BMJ, 383, e076733.

Bottema-Beutel, K., Sandbank, M., & Woynaroski, T. (2023). Introduction to some ethical issues in autism intervention research: Research design and reporting. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 8(6), 1238-1247.

Bottema-Beutel, K., Crowley, S., Kim, S.Y., Mohiuddin, S., Yu, Q., & McKinnon, R. (2023). An evaluation of intervention research for transition-age autistic youth. Autism, 27(4), 890-904.

Bottema-Beutel, K., Crowley, S., & Kim, S.Y. (2022). Sequence organization of autistic children鈥檚 play with caregivers: Rethinking follow-in directives. Autism, 26(5), 1267-1281.听

Select Grants

2025 鈥� 2030 Co-Principal Investigator. Effectiveness of Caregiver Mediated Interventions: A Culturally Inclusive Trial of Toddlers with DD. Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute ($13,699,014). PI: Megan Y. Roberts

2022 - 2027 Co-Investigator. Sensory Project in Infant/Toddler Siblings of Children with Autism (Project SPIS). National Institutes of Health ($3,155,239). PI: Tiffany Woynaroski

2024 鈥� 2025 Principal Investigator. Refinement and Validation of Neurodiversity Knowledge and Attitudes Assessments for School-age Children. 艾可直播 College IGNITE Grant ($30,000)

2023 鈥� 2025 Principal Investigator. Using Conversation Analysis to Understand Interactions between School Professionals and Autistic Students in Inclusive Classrooms 鈥� Extension to 艾可直播 Public Schools. Argyelan Family Foundation Award, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, 艾可直播 College ($35,000)

2018- 2020 Principal Investigator. Developmental Relationships between Joint Engagement and Vocabulary in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. National Institutes of Health ($156,500)

Honors & Awards

  • 2023 Ally to the Autistic Community Award, Autistic Self Advocacy Network
  • 2011 William T. and Helen S. Halstead Fellowship, administered by the Graduate Division, UC Berkeley
  • 2011 Institute of Human Development Graduate Student Fellowship, UC Berkeley
  • 2007-2011 Special Education Leadership Preparation Fellowship, San Francisco State University
  • 2010 University Research Fellowship Award, UC Berkeley
  • 2009 Shea Family Fellowship, UC Berkeley
  • 2009 Graduate Division Mentored Research Award, Alternate, UC Berkeley

Professional Activities

Director, Autism Certificate Program

Chair, Curriculum & Instruction Doctoral Advisory Committee

Deputy Editor, Autism in Adulthood
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