Faculty from across the University of California meet as part of the 2017 UC SPEDDR Conference
On January 27th and 28th UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School hosted the 11th annual Conference for the University of California Center for Research on Special Education, Disabilities, and Developmental Risk (UCSPEDDR).
The conference brought together faculty, graduate students, and community members for a packed, two-day discussion on current research occurring throughout the UC system involving special education, disabilities, and developmental risk. Highlights included keynote faculty speakers, oral presentations representing some of the highest quality investigations in special education, and an evening poster session where work was showcased for discussion.
The keynote speakers included Department of Education Professors George Singer and Mian Wang from UC Santa Barbara, talking on the topic “Supporting Families of Children with Developmental Disabilities: Emerging and Evidence-based Practices.”
Other keynote speakers and their talk titles were: Carol Connor, Chancellor’s Professor at UC Irvine, “The Word Knowledge e-Book: Building Comprehension Monitoring and Word Learning Skills,” and Mary Baker-Ericzén, Clinical Faculty at UC San Diego, “The Teen and Adult Autism Spectrum Disorder Tsunami Is Here: Next Generation Interventions: Moving Beyond Behaviors to Cognitions (Executive Functioning and Social Cognitive Skills).”
Established in 2005, UCSPEDDR is dedicated to research on special education, disabilities, and developmental risk needs in California schools. The center contributes to the statewide need to train teachers and researchers focused on special education. UCSPEDDR brings together faculty expertise across the University of California campuses to focus on the educational needs of children within the contexts of special education. Over these last ten years, UCSPEDDR has grown to include presentations and discussions with faculty across all ten UC campuses.
In addition, UCSPEDDR has focused on doctoral student training, providing a yearly conference for graduate students to present, to network, and to discuss research with colleagues across the state. This conference is directed by a committee of doctoral students (the Doctoral Student Advisory Committee, or DSAC) across the UC campuses who have been elected by UCSPEDDR faculty members to work alongside the UCSPEDDR faculty to meet the center’s short-and long-term goals, to encourage local collaborations with fellow colleagues across all UC campuses, and to strengthen the quality of research disseminated on special education, disabilities, and developmental risk across UC campuses.