Current Projects
Early Childhood | School Age | Life Span
Below is a listing of all current center projects arranged into Early Childhood, School Age Support and Life Span Support groupings.
To visit an individual project page, simply click on the appropriate Project Title from the listings below.
Current Early Childhood Projects
Goal: collect, synthesize, and analyze information related to
- certification & licensing requirements for personnel working with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with special needs and their families
- quality of training programs
- supply and demand of professionals representing all disciplines that provide early childhood special education and early intervention services
Project Coordinator:
Center for the Social and Emotional Foundations of Early Learning
Goal: A partnership between the University of Illinois, the University of Colorado at Denver, the University of South Florida, Education Development Corporation, Tennessee Voices for Children, and the University of Connecticut A.J. Pappanikou Center, the goal of the project is to strengthen the capacity of childcare and Head Start in order to improve the social and emotional outcomes of young children.
Project Coordinator:
Childcare for Children with Complex Medical Needs: Linking the Medical Home
Goal: to develop and disseminate a model that will strengthen center-based childcare infrastructures for infants and toddlers with medically complex needs and disabilities.
Project Coordinator:
Early Intervention in Natural Learning Environments
Goal: to utilize findings to develop, implement, and evaluate a training model on the use of natural environments in early intervention. The model will encompass both inservice and preservice materials and activities to support individual states' Comprehensive Systems of Personnel Development (CSPD).
Project Coordinator:
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Early Intervention Specialist Program
Goal: increase the number and quality of early interventionists serving infants and toddlers with disabilities. The program is completed on-line and is available nationwide for either graduate credits or CEUs.
Project Coordinator:
Enhanced Child Find Through Newborn Hearing Screening
Goal: to provide support and education on newborn hearing screening to couples awaiting the births of their babies. The project also provides support to families of babies who have had a newborn hearing screening and who have been referred for follow-up hearing testing.
Project Coordinator:
Research and Training Center on Service Coordination
Goal: to examine the status of service coordination for children with disabilities and their families receiving early intervention services under Part C of IDEA. The center is a partnership of the University of Connecticut, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Indiana University, the Federation for Children with Special Needs (MA), and Utah State University.
Project Coordinator:
Social Competence Curriculum for Toddlers with Behavioral Challenges
Goal: to investigate the effectiveness of a social competence curriculum to promote the development of social skills in toddlers who are at risk for school failure because of behavioral challenges.
Project Coordinator:
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Current School Age Support Projects
Elementary Children Disability Awareness Pilot Project
Goal: To increase the knowledge and comfort level of at least 200 elementary age children with regards to people with various types of disabilities, thus enhancing relationships with people with disabilities.
Project Coordinator:
Goal: to provide joint training to local educational agencies and families to develop partnerships in the planning and implementation of Individualized Education Programs for students with disabilities.
Project Coordinator:
Understanding Special Education
Goal: to provide a state-of-the-art, comprehensive instructional course to parents of children with disabilities and educational professionals in Connecticut in order to equip them with the skills they need to negotiate the special education system and improve its effectiveness for students with disabilities.
Project Coordinator:
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Current Life Span Support Projects
Community-Integrated Personal Assistance Services and Supports
Goal: to develop an infrastructure and create products that will promote the effective recruitment and retention of personal assistants, and ensure that people with disabilities in Connecticut have the knowledge, access and resources available to maximize choice and control in the use of Personal Assistance Services.
Project Coordinator:
Goal: To improve the capacity of Connecticut’s criminal justice system to meet the needs of persons with disabilities and to collaborate with government and community agencies to ensure equal access, equal protection, and equal treatment as appropriate for persons with developmental disabilities in Connecticut’s criminal justice system.
Project Coordinator:
CT Family Support 360: A Planning Grant
Goal: to plan a multi-agency partnership to design a one-stop center to assist poor or underserved families with a child or adult member with a developmental disability to preserve, strengthen and maintain their family unit.
Project Coordinator:
P.A.T.H.S.* Transportation Initiative
Goal: the State of Connecticut, with the Connecticut Department of Transportation (ConnDOT) as lead agency, is committed to designing and implementing a State Action Plan for responsive, comprehensive, coordinated community transportation systems for people with low income, older adults, and people with disabilities.
Project Coordinator:
Goal: to improve the capacity of Connecticut's communities to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities and their families by supporting the development of model communities that fully demonstrate accessible, appropriate, and quality community living opportunities for persons with disabilities.
Project Coordinator:
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