Edward Gary Carr (August 20, 1948 in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Canada – June 20, 2009 in Wading River, New York) was an internationally recognized pioneer in autism treatment research. He applied studies about the functions that self-injurious behaviors served and contributed substantially to the development and refinement of

positive behavior support Positive behavior support (PBS) uses tools from applied behaviour analysis and values of normalisation and social role valorisation theory to improve quality of life, usually in schools. PBS uses functional analysis to understand what maintains ...

(Carr et al., 2002). In addition, he assessed the benefits of teaching sign language to children with expressive and receptive language disorders as seen in children with autism. He was the Director of the Research & Training Center on Positive Behavior Support for Autism & Developmental Disabilities at

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

Background information

Carr was born on August 20, 1948, in Toronto, Canada. He secured his undergraduate degree at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

and graduate degrees from the

University of California at San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Sc ...

where he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, worked briefly at the

University of California Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the Cal ...

, and was Medical Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA. He joined Stony Brook University in 1976 as an Assistant Professor and quickly rose through the ranks to full Professor in 1985. He and his wife, Ilene Wasserman, were killed in a car accident on June 20, 2009. He was survived by his only child, Aaron, his brother, Allan, his sister, Rochelle Carr Burns ().

Early work

Early in his career, Carr began examining alternative explanations for why individuals with autism engage in self-injurious behavior (Weiss, 2003), publishing "The Motivation of Self-injurious Behavior: A Review of Some Hypotheses" in the journal ''

Psychological Bulletin The ''Psychological Bulletin'' is a monthly Peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes evaluative and integrative research Literature review, reviews and interpretations of issues in psychology, including both qualitative (narrative ...

'' in 1977. Over the years he and colleagues continued to research how self-injurious and other problem behavior might be controlled by factors in the children's environments, in effect serving a communicative function (). He and others applied this knowledge to develop and refine the procedures of functional behavior assessment (FBA). The work on humane means of reducing problem behaviors using positive procedures (e.g., antecedent-based or preventative interventions and teaching functional communication skills to replace the problem behavior) rather than aversive or punishment procedures, led Carr and others to develop

Later work

During his tenure at Stony Brook, Carr authored or co-authored scores of articles, chapters, monographs, and books; mentored many students; worked with organizations in the US and abroad; and founded and directed the Research & Training Center on Positive Behavior Support for Autism & Developmental Disabilities. His many publications include the books ''How to Teach Sign Language to Developmentally Disabled Children'', ''Communication-Based Intervention for Problem Behavior'', and the monograph ''Positive Behavior Support for People with Developmental Disabilities: A Research Synthesis''. In 2003, he completed a study titled ''Problem Behavior at Home and in the Community: When is it Most Likely to Occur? A Guide for Parents'' which was partially funded by the Organization for Autism Research. In 2005, Carr was named to the Panel of Professional Advisors of the

Autism Society of America The Autism Society of America (ASA) was founded in 1965 by Bernard Rimland together with Ruth C. Sullivan and a small group of other parents of autistic children. Its original name was the National Society for Autistic Children; the name was chang ...

(ASA), a national association with 120,000 members dedicated to educating the public about autism. This panel helps set national standards for autism research, as well as practice and policy regarding the care of individuals with autism ().

Honors

Carr was designated Leading Professor by the

State University of New York The State University of New York (SUNY ) is a system of Public education, public colleges and universities in the New York (state), State of New York. It is one of the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, larges ...

in 2000 and was thrice selected "Teacher of the Year" in the Department of Psychology (2004, 2006, 2008) ().

Awards

Carr received numerous awards in his field including the Applied Research Award for Outstanding Contributions to Applied Behavioral Research (

American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...

, 2001) and the Distinguished Research Award for Career Achievement ( Association for Retarded Citizens, 1999). A Fellow of the American Psychological Association and past president of the Association for Positive Behavior Support, Carr was named in ''Who's Who in America'' (2005) and ''Who's Who in American Education'' (2004) ().

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Carr, Edward Gary 1948 births 2009 deaths Autism researchers Canadian medical researchers