University of Washington
Where we are located
The PDA
Center at the University of Washington is housed at the
Experimental Education Unit
(EEU)
located on the campus of the University. The EEU provides comprehensive early
childhood services to children with and without disabilities and their families
in Seattle and surrounding areas. Over the years the EEU has provided early
intervention services to young children with disabilities and their families
in model demonstration programs,
developed instructional and assessment materials, promoted research to improve classroom
instructional practices, and provided training for professionals from a variety of disciplines (e.g.,
education, psychology, speech and hearing, occupational and physical therapy, neurology, pediatrics etc.).
Services for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders
(ASD)
An area of focus for the past 10 years has been providing effective services
for young children with autism and related disabilities and their families.
These efforts have been supported by Federal grants to design model demonstration
programs for toddlers and preschoolers with ASD. A focus of our program for
young children with ASD has been to blend approaches from the disciplines of
early childhood education, early childhood special education and applied
behavior analysis in order to provide individualized comprehensive programs.
The DATA
Project (Developmentally Appropriate Treatment for Autism) provides a
model program for young children with ASD that combines an integrated early
childhood classroom experience with intensive one-on-one or small group
instruction that targets areas of need related to ASD. (add a link to DATA
Project web site here)
Training Opportunities
A primary focus of training at the EEU has been to support schools and public
agencies in their efforts to provide quality early intervention services. The
EEU has provided training to school district personnel and other community
agencies that provide services to young children with disabilities and their
families through lectures, workshops, onsite trainings, and a resource center.
There are a variety of training opportunities offered through the EEU and
Project DATA. There are several programs housed at the EEU that are focused on
providing high quality early intervention services for young children with ASD.
The following programs offer hands-on training opportunities:
- Toddler Program for Children with ASD (Baby DATA)
- Preschool Program for Children with ASD
- Kindergarten Program for Children with ASD (This program is an academic based all-day kindergarten program).
- Social Skills Groups
All of these programs use empirically validated instructional procedures
(i.e., incidental teaching, time-delay, systematic use of reinforcement, Direct
Instruction, and peer mediated strategies, etc.) in the context of fun and
developmentally appropriate activities.
PDA Center at the University of Washington
Training Activities: The PDA Center offers a wide variety of training
opportunities. These include workshops and lectures, intensive training on-site
with follow-up, web-based support via e-mail, and on-going support using the
K-12 Video Conferencing System. A variety of levels of training and support are
offered through the PDA Center. The goal of the Center is to increase local
capacity to provide support and services to young children with ASD.
Resources: Practical forms for implementing a variety of
instructional procedures, data collection forms, activity ideas, and
family/child support plans are some of the resources that will provided to
participants.
University of Washington
Experimental Education Unit
Box 357925
Seattle, WA 98195
Phone: (206) 543-4011
Fax: (206) 616-8177
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