CSD Outreach: Teaching and Learning Activities
CSD faculty members share their expertise not only with students, but with clinicians and the public. Some recent examples of outreach activities include:
Dr.Janice Light is a member of the Augmentative and Alternative Communication Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (the AAC-RERC), a collaborative research group dedicated to the development of effective AAC technology, which is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. The AAC-RERC website (www.aac-rerc.com) provides resources for learning and communication among individuals who use AAC, clinicians, educators, researchers, and the public. The site hosts webcasts on a variety of topics, some of which can be used to earn ASHA continuing education credits. For example, Dr. Light has produced a webcast titled Maximizing the Literacy Skills of Individuals who Require AAC.
Literacy Instruction for Individuals with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome and Other Disabilities
Dr. Janice Light, Distinguished Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders in the College of Health and Human Development and Dr. David McNaughton, Associate Professor of Special Education in the College of Education recently launched a Web site to provide speech language pathologists,
teachers, and parents with strategies for
teaching literacy skills to learners with special needs, especially learners
with complex communication needs.
Dr. Krista Wilkinson presented a series of three workshops for public school personnel serving children with special needs, entitled Working Toward a Shared Goal: Bridging Behavioral and Non-Behavioral Approaches to Solving Common Clinical/Educational Problems; Color Cuing in Visual Aids for Communication; and Assessing Categorization Skills in Individuals with Severe Intellectual Disability and Complex Communication Support Needs.
Dr. Carol Miller presented a workshop for the Central Intermediate Unit entitled Auditory Processing Disorder and Language Impairment: Issues in Assessment and Treatment, and has been invited to speak in March 2009 at a continuing education course entitled the Spectrum of Developmental Disabilities, sponsored by the Johns Hopkins University Department of Pediatrics, the Kennedy Krieger Institute, and the Kennedy Fellows Association. Her topic will be Developmental relationships between language and theory of mind.
Dr. Carol Hammer and other faculty are working with preschool programs in three states to improve the school readiness of bilingual, Hispanic preschoolers.
The first project is Promoting the Emergent Literacy Development of English Language Learners: A Culturally-Informed Approach (Hammer, Principal Investigator). As part of this project, Hispanic mothers of Head Start children living in Pennsylvania receive training on how to support their children's school readiness over a series of eight home visits. Specifically, the mothers are provided with guidance on how to use culturally-relevant books and materials, designed especially for this project, to support their children's language and emergent literacy development in Spanish and English. Early feedback from mothers enrolled in the program indicates that mothers greatly appreciate receiving culturally-based materials that they can use to prepare their children for kindergarten.
The second project, Tools of the Mind: Promoting ELLs' Language, Self-Regulation & School Readiness (Hammer, Principal Investigator) is also designed to enhance bilingual, Hispanic preschoolers' readiness for schools. Through the project, preschool teachers and classroom assistants are trained to implement an innovative new curriculum, Tools of the Mind, and to support children's language, literacy and early mathematical development in Spanish and English. This project, which starts in fall 2009, is being carried out in Florida and Texas.
Faculty Development
The Department of CSD supports faculty in improving their teaching skills in a number of ways. The Annual Department Retreat devotes a half day to discuss assessment in the classroom and individual faculty member's teaching and learning strategies; specific faculty meetings are dedicated to discussions about teaching and learning and pedagogical styles; new faculty hires are strongly encouraged to attend the Penn State Course on College Teaching (CELT); the Department encourages faculty to submit proposals for teaching innovation grants and provides release time and matching funds.