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Director's Message
Michael J. Guralnick
As a comprehensive interdisciplinary
center dedicated to making a positive contribution to the
lives of people with developmental disabilities and their
families, the Center on Human Development and Disability supports
a wide range of research, clinical service, professional training,
dissemination, and community outreach activities.
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Michael
J. Guralnick
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The CHDD opened on the campus of the University
of Washington in Seattle in 1969 in a complex of four newly constructed
buildings. The Center now involves more than 600 faculty and staff
as well as a large number of graduate and post-graduate level trainees
in its numerous activities on behalf of individuals with disabilities.
The CHDD is one of the few centers in the United States which is
composed of two major federally funded core programs, a Eunice Kennedy Shriver Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (IDDRC) and a University
Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD), combined
in one comprehensive center.
Our IDDRC is one of 12 original research
centers nationwide authorized by legislation signed by President
Kennedy in 1963 with continuing core support from the National Institute
of Child Health and Human Development. There are now 14 such centers.
The purpose of these research centers is to study the underlying
causes of intellectual and other developmental disabilities
and to develop behavioral and biomedical techniques that can prevent
disabilities from occurring entirely or minimize their impact.
The same 1963 law authorized centers, now
known as UCEDDs, to train professionals within an interdisciplinary
framework, to provide clinical services, to develop programs to
be used as models in the community, and to evaluate and disseminate
information. Advocacy and policy development on behalf of the community
of individuals with disabilities are also important functions of
the UCEDD. Continuing core support is provided by the Administration
on Developmental Disabilities.
I invite you to browse our website for descriptions
of our many activities and links to other web resources related
to the field of developmental disabilities.
Michael
J. Guralnick, Ph.D.
Director, Center on Human Development and Disability
Professor of Psychology and Pediatrics
Michael Guralnick's
web page
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