Robert Stillman

Robert Stillman is a Professor and Associate Dean of Graduate Education at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), affiliated with the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences and the Callier Center for Communication Disorders. He holds academic roles including Program Head, Director, and has served since 1973 across multiple departments at UTD. His research focuses on cognitive and interpersonal factors influencing communicative development in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), emphasizing preverbal and early verbal skills. A campus-based preschool for ASD children serves as his primary research laboratory for observational and intervention studies.

Education: Ph.D. in Psychology from Syracuse University (1969), B.S. in Psychology from Union College (1964).

Research emphasizes qualitative studies on ASD communication development, deafblindness assessment, and sensory impairments. Key projects include validating assessment strategies for deafblind children and enhancing communicative interactions. His work has led to influential assessment tools like the Callier Early Childhood Autism Spectrum Profile and the Callier-Azusa Scale.

Grants include $190K from the U.S. Department of Education for deafblind assessment strategies (2004–2009) and $372K for communicative interaction research (1989–1992). He has advised 9 doctoral dissertations on topics like autism, hearing impairments, and developmental disorders.

Labs/Teams: Leads the Callier Center’s ASD preschool program and collaborates on interdisciplinary teams for sensory and developmental disabilities research.