|
MCHB Expands National Footprint of LEND Training Programs
The Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) within the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has announced funding awards for a record 49 Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) programs. These programs, which are located at universities and hospitals across the country, prepare trainees from a wide variety of professional disciplines to assume leadership roles in the delivery of services to children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities in clinical practice, research, and public policy. Read more...
Project SEARCH Southern Miss (MS UCEDD)
 "We do not fear the future for we are the future," was the wording featured on the inaugural Project SEARCH Southern Miss Class of 2016 graduation invitation. Seven Hattiesburg High School students participated in an employment skills program at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Hattiesburg campus for the 2015-2016 high school year. These student became interns and participated in daily employment training and completed three work internships, all at USM. Read more...
Cognitive Testing Using Tobii I-15 Eye Gaze System (IA UCEDD/LEND)
 Typically cognitive assessments have not been reliably completed for individuals with significant motor impairments and complex communication needs. However with advances in technology, cognitive assessments are possible when early intervention of a communication system has been introduced. Psychologist, Angela L. Smith, PsyD and Speech-Language Pathologist, Laura M. Bohnenkamp, MA, CCC-SLP at the Center for Disabilities and Development, Iowa's University Center for Excellence on Disabilities used eye gaze technology to assess cognitive status in a patient. Read more...
Routing a Path for Everyone (KY UCEDD)
 A group of students and HDI employee, Darrell Mattingly, led by HDI Disability Program Specialist Anna Bard, set out on a mission last year to map accessibility on campus so that everyone - no matter how they're navigating - can have the information they need to get around campus efficiently. In the fall 2016 semester, UK Facilities Management's Facilities Information Services will unveil the new interactive campus map that includes accessibility attributes and can route an appropriate path depending on a user's needs. Read more...
AUCD Diversity Fellow: Tailoring the Scope of Cultural Competence Education using an Innovative Self-Reflective Training Curriculum
(FL UCEDD/LEND)
 With widespread recognition of the need for cultural competence being more prevalent than ever in today's diverse society, Dr. Kira Knight has embraced her role as the AUCD Diversity Fellow of the University of Miami's Mailman Center for Child Development. Eager to foster change - a change that embraces diversity, appreciates common humanity, and channels inclusion, Kira is in the process of revising and strengthening the Cultural Competence curriculum for LEND/UCEDD trainees, medical students, residents and fellows throughout the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine and Jackson Health System in Miami, Florida. Read more...
Assistive Technology Services Expand in Utah (UT UCEDD)
 People with disabilities in the Uintah Basin in central Utah will soon have more help meeting their goals for independence, thanks to a grant from the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation and the new Assistive Technology Lab at Utah State University in Roosevelt. The lab and the $73,925 award from the foundation will open new possibilities in obtaining and learning about assistive technologies that could make a difference to people with mobility, communication, vision, hearing or other disabilities. "We have a physical presence over there in the Uintah Basin now," said Alma Burgess, the grant's principal investigator. "That allows us to do something similar to what the AT Lab does in Logan now." Read more...
VCU Professor and Va-LEND Faculty Member Selected to Collaborate on International Team on CP
 This past June, Stacey Dusing, Ph.D, PT, PCS, Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy and Va-LEND faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University was among three distinguished individuals from the United States invited to participate in a workshop to develop an International Early Intervention Research Collaborative. The workshop was held just prior to the 2016 International Conference in Stockholm on Cerebral Palsy (CP). "I presented some research on a clinical trial at the American Academy of Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology in Sept 2015 and at that conference the workshop organizers approached me about attending the workshop in Stockholm Sweden," said Dusing. Read more...
SEANET Student Interns Gather Data on Invasive Green Crabs (Maine UCEDD)
 The Center for Community Inclusion and Disability Studies (ME UCEDD), with funding from Maine EPSCoR/Sustainable Ecological Aquaculture Network (SEANET), is partnering with the Community Environmental Health Laboratory (CEHL) at MDI Biological Laboratory to train and engage middle/high school students with disabilities from coastal Hancock County in intertidal census work. CEHL works to identify and help remedy threats to public health and water quality on and around Mount Desert Island. Enrolled students are offered paid internships and receive training in the identification of invasive species, such as green crabs; data collection and data management. Student interns, supervised onsite by mentors, follow a scientific protocol and receive a variety of hands-on worksite skills. Read more...
Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (TN UCEDD, LEND, IDDRC) Investigators Using Virtual Reality to Help Teenagers with Autism Learn How to Drive
 Astronauts and pilots use them. So do truck drivers and Formula One race car drivers. Now, Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (TN UCEDD, LEND, IDDRC) investigators have developed a virtual reality simulator specifically designed to help teenagers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) learn how to drive."In the past 15 years, there has been such an emphasis, such an appropriate emphasis, on early identification and early treatment of children with ASD," said Amy Weitlauf, a psychologist who specializes in autism. "Well, now many of these children are adolescents and adults, so we have started to work on providing them with the support they need to become independent adults. And one of those key life skills for independence is, for many people, the ability to drive." Read more...
Careers in the Arts Online Dialogue (CA UCEDD)
 The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the UCLA Tarjan Center's National Arts and Disability Center (NADC) convened a Careers in the Arts Online Dialogue June 6 through June 19, 2016. The purpose of the ePolicyWorks dialogue was to: 1) continue to explore how artists and arts administrators with disabilities have been successful in gaining employment, and 2) find out more how arts and disability organizations can support people in their arts careers.
Read more...
It's a Small World (GA UCEDD/LEND)
 A personal account of how a LEND, Center for Leadership in Disability trainee was inspired by his mother's advocacy for individuals with disabilities, and his opportunity to meet another LEND participant who was also inspired by his mother's passionate work.
"It's a small world." This phrase typically refers to events that are related in often unexpected ways. While I have heard and used this phrase many times throughout my life, a recent series of events led me to a new and personal appreciation for just how small our worlds can be. Allow me to explain: Jane Roberts, my mother, is a professor in the School of Psychology program at the University of South Carolina. Read more...
IU Research: Indiana Teacher Evaluations are Improving but Remain Inconsistent (IN UCEDD)
 Teacher evaluation plans developed by Indiana school districts are inconsistent and erratic and vary widely in quality and comprehensiveness, according to research by the Indiana Teacher Appraisal and Support System project at the Center on Education and Lifelong Learning at Indiana University Bloomington. There is good news in the research report, "An Analysis of Indiana District Evaluation Plans." It finds that teacher evaluations have changed significantly since the adoption of a 2011 state law requiring annual evaluations. Read more...
Think College Professional Development (MA UCEDD/LEND)
 Nearly 100 directors and staff from TPSIDs, as well as Think College staff, came together for networking and professional development opportunities at the annual meeting from July 11 - 13th in Indianapolis, IN. There were updates from the coordinating center and organizational partners, presentations on critical topics, and small group discussions. Additionally, attendees had a chance to attend AHEAD national conference events. Read more...
UM's Rural Institute Awards 2016 Community Investment Fund
(MT UCEDD)
 In an ongoing effort to promote the full inclusion of people with disabilities into their communities, the Rural Institute for Inclusive Communities (RIIC) offers an annual Community Investment Fund (CIF) grant to organizations that advance this mission. The RIIC maintains a CIF Review Committee comprised of individuals with disabilities and a few others who make the funding decision. Read more...
Publication of the PEERS for Young Adults Treatment Manual
(CA UCEDD)
 The UCLA PEERS® Clinic and Dr. Elizabeth Laugeson are delighted to announce the release of the newest social skills training manual, PEERS® for Young Adults, in December 2016. Dr. Laugeson, Director of Training at the Tarjan Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities at UCLA, is the developer of PEERS®, an evidence-based, caregiver-assisted social skills intervention for adolescents and young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other social challenges. Read more...
The Michigan UCEDD Announces Several New Collaborations
 The Developmental Disabilities Institute (DDI) at Wayne State University, recently received funding for a Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) Program. The Michigan LEND (MI-LEND) is the state's first LEND program and one of the largest collaboration of universities within the AUCD LEND Network. Read more...
 top of page
|
Tyler Reimschisel, M.D., director of the Division of Developmental Medicine and director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center LEND (TN LEND, UCEDD, IDDRC) Training Program, has been selected for the 2016 Class of Macy Faculty Scholars. The Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation launched the Macy Faculty Scholars Program in 2010 to identify and nurture the careers of educational innovators in medicine and nursing. Each year, the foundation selects five faculty leaders who receive salary and mentor support for two years, according to the program website. 
Meera Rothman is a rising senior at Dulaney High School in Baltimore, Maryland, and an MCDD trainee for the summer. Meera has volunteered more than 125 hours this summer on two research projects to benefit Kennedy Krieger's Psychiatric Mental Health Program and the Care Coordination Project. Meera also volunteered with Project HEAL, an MCDD community-based program, during the summers of 2013 and 2014, and presented her research at a poster session during the 2014 AUCD conference. 
Hilary Tebeleff, a former law trainee with the Maryland Center for Developmental Disabilities graduated cum laude from The University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. Hilary also received the 2016 Public Service Award and The University of Maryland School of Law Litigation and Advocacy Award. 
Tuesday, August 9, 2016, 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. ET
Thursday, October 6, 2016, Broomfield, CO
December 4-7 in Washington, DC
