Lisa Jacobson, PhD

Primary Academic Title

Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Contact for Research Inquiries

Department of Neuropsychology
1750 E. Fairmount Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21231

Phone: (443) 923-4461
jacobson@kennedykrieger.org

Research Interests

Pediatric Neuropsychology

Research Summary

Dr. Jacobson is interested in brain development and attentional control, processing speed, and executive functions in children, and associations of these functions with learning and behavioral disorders. She is interested in studying children with identified disorders affecting executive functioning (e.g., ADHD, movement disorders, Spina Bifida, cancers and cancer treatment, etc.) as well as children at risk for developing executive dysfunction, and investigating ways in which parents and teachers can support children's development of EF skills. 

She is working to develop clinical screening tools for identifying children with executive dysfunction that can be used as part of typical medical care visits for specific clinical populations. She has collaborated on a variety of projects examining response variability in children with ADHD, characteristics of attentional disorders in referred children, influences of working memory on reading fluency in ADHD, executive functioning in spina bifida, and validation of the Kennedy Krieger Independence Scales - Spina Bifida Version (KKIS-SB). 

She is also involved in collaborations with the Maryland State Department of Education and Towson University designed to improve teacher training regarding neurodevelopment and interventions for children with various developmental disorders.

Selected Publications

• 1. Performance lapses in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder contribute to poor reading fluency.
  2. The Kennedy Krieger Independence Scales-Spina Bifida Version: a measure of executive components of self-management.
  3. Clinical utility of the Colorado Learning Difficulties Questionnaire.
  4. Factor structure of a sluggish cognitive tempo scale in clinically-referred children.
  5. Working memory influences processing speed and reading fluency in ADHD.
  6. The role of executive function in children's competent adjustment to middle school.

Additional Training

Mailman Center for Child Development, Miami, Florida, 2008; Kennedy Krieger/Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, 2010, Clinical Neuropsychology