Gassner

Nearly 200 speech language pathologists, audiologists, educators and students from across the state will hear about the latest research and best practices in their fields at the UGA College of Education’s fifth annual Communication Sciences and Special Education Summer Institute. The keynote speaker will be Dena Gassner.

The Missing Link: Helping Students with Asperger’s to Embrace and Integrate Self-awareness as a Foundation for Personal Advocacy and Growth

Dena Gassner
Program director and owner the Center for Understanding
Nashville, Tenn.

Georgia Center for Continuing Education

Press release
Website

Gassner

Nearly 200 speech language pathologists, audiologists, educators and students from across the state will hear about the latest research and best practices in their fields at the University of Georgia’s fifth annual Communication Sciences and Special Education Summer Institute at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education June 6-7.

Dena Gassner, program director and owner the Center for Understanding in Nashville, Tenn., will be the keynote speaker. She will speak on The Missing Link: Helping Students with Asperger’s to Embrace and Integrate Self-awareness as a Foundation for Personal Advocacy and Growth at 8:45 a.m. on Thursday, June 6.

Gassner, LMSW, developed her interest in family systems with diagnostic training at the University Affiliated program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital while simultaneously becoming a certified early intervention specialist. Upon completing her master’s degree at the University of Kentucky, she transitioned to individual/family coaching support in the field of Asperger’s Syndrome and similar processing/developmental learning challenges.

She was the 2009 winner of the Jo Andrews Award from Nashville’s Mayor’s Committee on Disability for outstanding disability advocacy. She has been featured in a PSA (no-myths.org) and an online video for the Dan Marino Foundation (AU-tube). She is a frequent contributor to Autism Brainstorm (autismbrainstorm.org). She recently completed two years as an itinerant faculty member for Health-Education Network traveling the nation, providing professional development training to teachers, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, behavioral consultants, families, individuals and others.

Several breakout sessions, led by both national and local experts, will address current topics and trends for special educators, general educators and speech-language pathologists such as:

• Asperger’s Disorder
• Reading Disabilities
• Medical Issues of Children in the Schools
• Data Collection and Behavior Management
• Legal Issues Pertaining to Classroom Teaching and Children with Disabilities
• Augmentative and Alternative Communication Solutions in the Classroom

The institute will also include information on administrative issues, parental concerns and perspectives of individuals with disabilities on each of these topics.

Participants may earn 1.0 PLU from the Georgia Department of Education and up to 1.075 CEUs from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association for attendance on both days. PLU and CEU approval is in progress.

Registration costs vary. The early registration deadline is May 9. Regular fee registration deadline is May 30.

For costs and more information, visit:
www.coe.uga.edu/cssesummer/

Pictured are: (L-R) left to right: CMSD graduate students Rebecca Benson, Emily Campos and Madyson Feit and Alice Sanderson, CMSD Clinical Assistant Professor and Audiologist

A group of UGA College of Education students in communication sciences helped the UGA Speech and Hearing Clinic publicize International Noise Awareness Day on Wednesday, April 24 at the Tate Student Center.  Grady Newsource Channel 15 reports on the story.

CMSD graduate students Emily Campos and Madyson Feit with Hairy Dawg at Tate Center.

Patterson

Christopher Patterson, a faculty member in the College of Education’s department of communication sciences and special education, received the 2012 Georgia Deaf Community Leader Award. Patterson, who is deaf, uses sign language to deliver his lectures, advise his students and communicate with others on and off campus.

Patterson and and his work are featured in an April 1 Columns story titled, “Grand Gestures.” The article also includes a link to a UGA multimedia piece on Patterson. In addition, the story is displayed as the “Teaching” feautre on the UGA Home Page this week.

DeCelles

We’re hEAR for You, a four-year-old non-profit organization that raises awareness in Athens’ music scene on the dangers of hearing loss, which was co-founded by College of Education alumna Caroline DeCelles (MEd ’10, BSEd ’08), an Athens speech pathologist, is featured in a February 27 story in Non-Profit Quarterly. The article also mentions free hearing screenings offered for area residents by the UGA Speech and Hearing Clinic, which is based in the COE.

Gast

A University of Georgia graduate program in special education that prepares educators to more effectively teach students with autism has received a third federal grant of $1.2 million,  reports a January 14 story in Columns. The program is directed by David Gast.

David Gast, a professor of special education, says he is recruiting students across disciplines to apply for fellowships that will pay for their graduate education. Photo by Peter Frey

An innovative University of Georgia graduate program in special education, that has prepared dozens of area elementary school teachers to work with children with autism over the past several years, has received a new federal grant of $1.2 million to continue its work through 2017.

The Collaborative Personnel Preparation in Autism (COPPA) project is a partnership between UGA special education faculty and four area public school systems: Clarke, Gwinnett, Madison and Oconee counties.

Over 70 percent of the funding will be used to fund 45 highly qualified and adaptive curriculum certified public school teachers to serve children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in grades K–5.

“I’ll be looking to recruit students across disciplines–education, psychology, child and family development, and related fields–who have an interest in and experience with children with Autism Disorder and would like to compete for fellowships to pay for their graduate education in special education,” said David Gast, professor of special education and director of the COPPA Project.

Applicants for the fellowships will be considered from across the nation. Priority will be given to persons with ASD experience, who are from underrepresented groups, and who are not currently certified in special education.

The graduate students will learn how to: 1) use evidence-based practices when serving children with ASD in inclusive educational settings; 2) provide consultation, in-service training, and disseminate evidence-based information; and 3) conduct applied research with children with ASD and/or their families.

It is anticipated that six full-time students, who will receive full funding ($22,000 in the first year), will be admitted each year, and another five part-time students will be admitted and receive partial funding. Students will be prepared to teach children with ASD who, when diagnosed, function in the moderate to profound range of intellectual disabilities. Funded students will enroll in three ASD didactic courses, two ASD practica, and an ASD internship, along with other courses required for Georgia state certification in Adapted Curriculum. Program course work can be used toward being a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA).

To broaden the impact of the project, non-funded students from special and general education, as well as students from related fields (psychology, child/family development, social work, speech pathology, etc.) will be recruited to enroll in one or more of the ASD grant-supported courses. In addition to offering ASD courses on UGA’s main campus, core ASD courses will be offered at UGA’s satellite campus in Gwinnett and, in the future, on the Web. UGA courses will be taught by Gast, Jennifer Ledford, and Kevin Ayres, and ASD courses at UGA’s Gwinnett campus will be taught by Diana Hammond, co-director of the COPPA Project, coordinator of ASD programs for Gwinnett County Public Schools.

Gast and Deanna Luscre, who coordinated the ASD program for Gwinnett County Public Schools from 1996-2003, developed COPPA in 2003 with an initial four-year grant of $894,000 from the U.S. Department of the Education. It received a second four-year grant of $793,000 in 2007.

For more information on the COPPA Project and graduate studies in ASD, degree (M.A, M.Ed., M.A.T, Ed.S, Ph.D.) and non-degree, contact David Gast at dlgast@uga.edu. Additional information regarding the COPPA project and other special education programs offered at UGA is available at: www.coe.uga.edu/csse/academic-programs/special-education/.

In addition, information on the Study Abroad in Ireland: Developmental Disabilities six-week summer program, which includes placements serving children with ASD, can be accessed on this website.

Founded in 1908, the UGA College of Education is one of the largest and most diverse institutions of its kind in the nation, offering 14 undergraduate majors and more than 34 graduate programs leading to careers as educators, counselors, psychologists, administrators, researchers, and educational and health-related specialists.

A screening of speech, language, voice, resonance, fluency, and hearing is available for adults and for children ages 3 years and older.

Call 706/542-4598 for an appointment or more information.

Rivers Crossing
850 College Station Road
University of Georgia

Press Release
More information and online registration

Ellen Rolader, Georgia Outreach Coordinator for Hamilton Relay, presents the award to Patterson at an Aderhold Hall reception. COE photo by Michael Childs

University of Georgia College of Education lecturer Christopher Patterson is different than other faculty at UGA. His lectures do not drone on. In fact, he doesn’t speak at all.

Patterson, who is deaf, uses sign language to deliver his lectures, advise his students and communicate with others on and off campus.  He has become a force for advocacy for individuals who are deaf, devoting countless hours of his time on a local as well as national level.

His work encouraging empowerment for individuals who are deaf was recently recognized when he received the 2012 Georgia Deaf Community Leader Award from Hamilton Relay, the service provider for telecommunication relay services in Georgia.

Patterson, an American Sign Language (ASL) Lecturer and advisor to the ASL Dawgs Club since 2011, is a faculty member in the college’s department of communications sciences and special education.

The communication sciences program at UGA prepares students to become professionals who provide prevention, evaluation and intervention services for clients from birth to adult with speech, language, voice, resonance, swallowing or hearing disorders. The program in Speech-Language Pathology is accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and approved by the Georgia Department of Education.

The award was recently presented to Patterson at a small gathering of his friends, students and colleagues at Aderhold Hall in which sign language was almost exclusively used in both the presentation and his acceptance.

In accepting the award, Patterson, signed that he could tell there was more public awareness of people with hearing disability in the Athens community and that the UGA program was responsible for much of that.

“I went to My Pie the other day and I began to point at pictures of the stuff I wanted on my pizza because I’m used to having to do that to communicate,” he signed as a colleague interpreted. “But I was pleasantly surprised, when the person at the counter started signing back. And I thought, wow. That’s really cool. The awareness is really growing. ”

Patterson has been a strong advocate for communication accessibility and interpreting services for individuals who are deaf. He was actively involved with the Georgia Advocacy Office to ensure that medical professionals have the resources to provide effective communication. He also worked to partner Georgia Association of the Deaf (GAD) and Georgia Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf to host workshops for deaf individuals looking to become Certified Deaf Interpreters. Additionally, he advocated for the State of Georgia to accept ASL as a foreign language in the public schools.

Patterson advocated for the state to adopt the Deaf Child Bill of Rights and was co-chair of the first Deaf Children’s Literacy Benefit Gala in Atlanta, which gained exposure to ASL and literacy issues surrounding children who are deaf and hard of hearing.

From 2011-12, Patterson served as director of the Junior GAD, a program which offers deaf and hard of hearing students in 7th through 12th grade opportunities to develop leadership skills, learn and demonstrate citizenship, and interact with students from other schools and states. He has served as a Region III representative to the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and will serve as conference chair hosting the NAD Conference in Atlanta in 2014.
He also served as board member, officer, vice president and president of the GAD from 2004-10 and has served as chair of fundraising and conferences since 2003.

Before coming to UGA, Patterson was a teacher at Atlanta Area School for the Deaf from 2005-09 and a lecturer at Troy University in Troy, Ala., from 2010-11. During his tenure, he served as an advisor to Troy University’s Interpreter Training Program before coming to UGA in 2011.

Patterson received his B.A. in special education from Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah, GA., in 2000, his master’s in deaf education from Georgia State University in 2008 and an educational specialist degree from Mercer University in 2010. He is currently working on a doctorate in elementary education at UGA