An interdepartmental team of UTSA researchers has been awarded nearly $1 million in funding from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to provide services and training to Texas teachers and military-affiliated parents who are caring for youth with autism.
The grant, awarded to the UTSA Teacher Education Autism Model (TEAM) Center in collaboration with the UTSA Department of Educational Psychology and the Center for Military Families, comes from an $8.1 million allotment to the Higher Education Coordinating Board by the 84th Texas Legislature to better serve children with autism through training and research.
UTSA faculty Lee Mason, Leslie Neely and Carmen Fies with help from faculty, staff, and students in the UTSA College of Education and Human Development (COEHD), will implement two projects to fulfill the legislature’s mission of using online resources, training modules and in-person and teleconference counseling to improve services for individuals with autism.
The researchers will train more than 960 teachers and community providers and 550 military-affiliated parents across Texas in applied behavior analysis (ABA) methods. ABA is a form of therapy that involves modifying a child’s environment to encourage socially appropriate behaviors while reducing inappropriate ones.
Neely, in partnership with Fies and the UTSA Center for Military Families, will oversee the parent training project. The military-affiliated families will self-select social, educational or behavioral concern areas for their children, and the initiative will provide them with tools to assist them. The online aspect of the program is designed to remove disruptions in ABA services to children should they be relocated.
Twenty-six members of the UTSA Facilities and Housekeeping staff read their short stories aloud during the Erlinda’s Wish Program Author Reading in June.
The UTSA Center for Military Families hosted the Military Life Talks discussion in November on resources and information for military families with special needs.
The UTSA Women’s Studies Institute honored Yonnie Blanchette, executive director of the Carver Community Cultural Center, as the 2016 Women’s Advocate of the Year and celebrated the 30th anniversary of the start of women’s history celebrations at UTSA.
The UTSA Academy for Teacher Excellence, along with the College of Engineering and the Center for Civic Engagement, helped to provide service learning opportunities for 34 students in Dr. Pranav Bhounsule’s Fundamentals of Robotics course.
The Roadrunner Diabetes Screening and Education Project, under the direction of Dr. Zenong Yin, Loretta J. Lowak Clarke Distinguished Professor, has provided free screenings for height, weight, blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose levels aboard the Mobile Health Lab to nearly 2,000 people at a variety of locations across the city.
The Office of Teacher Education Services inducted nearly 200 students into the profession of teaching during a special ceremony in the spring of 2016.