March 26

Dear all,
It has already been one month since our GEDS program experience began. Looking back, we can confirm that the time runs through the different and engaging experiences that we find day by day. Till now we’ve been immersed in a growing network that has been expanding in terms of contacts and knowledge in all the – almost endless – research life contained on Chapel Hill University. Everyone we meet knows someone else that also has a research theme that fits our interests – and then here we are engaged in a snow ball of new worlds of knowledge and perspectives. Quickly and simply they connect us and a new window of learning opportunities emerges – it’s amazing how flexible and effective is this communication and openness of everybody to share their work, ideas and projects.
Among these experiences, as you already know from the previous post, we met the Pam Winter’s project named CONNECT: The Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge. This is a about providing a web-based resources and supports to implement inclusive evidence-based practices: http://community.fpg.unc.edu/connect. Addressing inclusion issues this web-based resources focus on and respond to challenges faced each day by those working with young children with disabilities and their families. Through a friendly user web-site you easily get absorbed on a new brand space that links the research evidences with the daily practices – by building learner modules that adopt a Five-Step Learning Cycle: (1) dilemma: is about a child’s participation in an inclusive setting viewed through the eyes of both the teacher and the family; (2) question: turn the dilemma about child’s participation into an answerable question; (3) evidence: consider research, consensus statements and policies, and experience-based knowledge related to embedded interventions; (4) decision: integrate sources of evidence, different perspectives, and unique contexts to make an informed decision; (5) evaluation: consider ways to evaluate the plan for promoting child’s participation that resulted from the decision-making process. The research evidences are presented and highlighted through practices examples that represent inclusion theoretical principles, namely embedded interventions, family involvement, family-professional partnerships and transition. A case report given by teachers, other professionals and family show how the same situation can be perceived by different persons, knowledge domains and contexts.
In knowledge diffusion domain we found on that web-based researches a powerful tool to evidence-based practices.
Looking forward to hear from you through comments and new posts.
Best,

The Connect Project

The Connect Project is one of the Early Childhood Community projects, developed by the Frank Porter Graham Center and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The aim of the Connect project is that everyone trying to study or just know more about Early Childhood Intervention issues can have access to their website and attend their modules. Several resources are provided (such as videos, reading materials and activities to implement in the classroom), as well as quizzes where you can test your knowledge. A participant attending the Connect modules can learn more about Family and Teachers' perspectives on Early Childhood Intervention, Policies, Transdisciplinary teamwork, RTI (Response to Intervention) and many other topics to improve practice in working with children with disabilities.

The Connect aims to divulge the ways in which you can teach Early Childhood Intervention topics, so anyone is encouraged to use the materials provided and apply them in their own teaching!

Visit to Murdoch Center

Hello everyone, 


here comes the time to share with you another great experience that the GEDS exchange program allowed us to have: the visit to Murdoch Center.

Murdoch Center is one of the four regional centers operated by the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Resources. The center provides comprehensive residential care, Person-centered, for approximately 550 citizens from  18 counties of North Carolina State. The center has 1720 employees that provide care 24 hours a day to in short-term programs when the family cannot support the needs of the client.

Staff includes Teachers, Psychologists, Physical Therapists, Social Workers, Speech and Hearing therapists, Occupational therapists, physician, psychiatrist, dentist, dietician, pharmacist and vocational instructor.

To be eligible for admission to Murdoch Center a person must have a diagnosis of profound, severe or moderate mental retardation or a related developmental disability.

Murdoch has specific programs for specific populations: young adult males with developmental disability diagnoses and extreme behavior problems from the entire state in a specialized behavioral unit (BART), specialized residential services to children who have Autism with accompanying severe behavioral challenges (PATH) and adolescents with developmental disabilities, mental health issues and behavioral challenges (STARS). Most of the intervention are based on Functional Assessment and Behavioral approaches.

Murdoch Center in Butner is located, an area that historically has hosted numerous prisons, residential homes,  psychiatric hospitals and special education schools. 

Another unforgettable experience among many that we have the chance to experience.

GEDS Program - 3rd Week

Dear all,

Here we are, beginning our third week of the GEDS Program.

The huge change in our daily lives brought by this exciting experience has demanded an adaptation process to reorganize our routines.

From this standpoint, our second newsletter is mainly about “getting engaged” with the planned experiences, the people and the social and cultural life of Chapel Hill.

Our day begins with a 15 minutes’ walk to Chapel Hill University, mainly to two distinct destinations: the Peabody Hall and the Family Support Network. Even though the cold is hard, the landscape is beautiful: large roads surrounded by quiet spaces of houses and trees.

The two distinct locations of our work, the Peabody Hall and the Family Support Network , although different, have been conducting us to convergent action lines.

Peabody Hall is usually the starting point. There we attend the interesting course of Child Development and Disability – which emphasizes typical and atypical manifestations of cognitive, social/emotional and communicative development in children. Very close to Peabody Hall – in Greenlaw building - we have been engaged on the course Communicating in the American Classroom, where themes as learning styles, typical expressions and non-verbal communication in an American classroom, have been addressed.

A beautiful office was kindly provided to us at Peabody Hall. It has been the reference point to develop our individual study and to face other interesting research challenges regarding ICF domains and the available measurement tools. A little bit far away - in Seawell School Road – we have been discovering a brand new knowledge about appropriate learning environments and curriculum strategies for young children with and without disabilities at Early Childhood Intervention and Family Support Course.

The “American experience” is being really interesting, particularly the opportunity to attend courses at the Chapel Hill University, as well as to have the opportunity of learning from different perspectives which are being very important steps for our learning process.

Regarding the other preferential destination - Family Support Network - we have been deeply engaged on the core literature reading and on the interaction with the whole excellent team, achieving a brand new learning on Parent-to-Parent Programs and Family-Centered Practices. Today the FSN-NC is a statewide affiliation of community-based family support programs that also promotes the involvement of family members in the development and implementation of family-centered practices in North Carolina.

For last but not less important, we are finding on Chapel Hill a great center of cultural activities that promotes every weekends at Memorial Hall a different show – from artistic dance to beautiful Jazz concerts. Also, there are emotive sports activities related to the North Carolina Basketball Team.

We are engaging on Chapel Hill life and the knowledge and personal growing has been amazing – so much experiences we are collecting.

Soon we will tell you more.