The PIPs Project

• There is a critical need to prepare highly qualified personnel to work with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with complex needs and their families.

• Integral to highly effective service delivery is the training of professionals with interdisciplinary expertise and competence in cross-discipline collaboration, as young children with high-intensity needs often require services from providers representing diverse disciplines (e.g. speech-language pathology, special education, physical therapy, occupational therapy).

• The purpose of this project is to provide interdisciplinary training to graduate-level early childhood special educators (ECSE) and speech-language pathologists (SLP) to support young children with high-intensity needs across a variety of settings.

• The PIPS Project: Serving Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers with High-Intensity Needs Through Evidence-Based Preparation of Interdisciplinary Providers is a joint effort between the Communication Sciences and Disorders (CMSD) and the Special Education Birth Through Kindergarten (B-K) programs housed within the Department of Communication Sciences and Special Education in the College of Education.

• Graduates will be eligible for certification in speech-language pathology or early childhood special education and will be prepared for positions serving children with disabilities eligible for Part C or Part B preschool services through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

• Sponsor
  U.S. Department of Education
  $1,109,380

• Principal investigator
  Rebecca G. Lieberman-Betz
  Associate Professor, Communication Sciences and Special Education

• Co-principal investigators
  Cynthia O. Vail
  Communication Sciences and Special Education

  Jennifer A. Brown
  Communication Sciences and Special Education

• Active since
  October 2017

Visit the PIPs project website

Abstract

• The PIPs Project will prepare highly qualified professionals to work with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with high-intensity needs and their families.
• The personnel preparation program will provide interdisciplinary training through cross-discipline partnerships and collaborative learning experiences.
• Discipline and content expert consultants and affiliated faculty from within and outside of the UGA community will support the instruction of scholars and will collaborate to carry out learning institutes focused on interdisciplinary teaming and special topics concerning children with high-intensity needs.
• Pedagogical methods promoting critical thinking and team-based problem solving will be implemented across shared courses and joint clinical experiences to support scholars in developing the skills necessary for collaborative teaming and data-driven decision making within early intervention and ECSE programs.
• Ongoing collaboration with programs supporting individuals with complex needs, such as the Georgia Sensory Assistance Project, the stat’s technical assistance center for individuals with deaf-blindness housed in the College of Education at UGA (PI: Cynthia Vail); Georgia vision and/or hearing loss and their families; and Georgia’s Part C system will provide scholars with a multitude of interdisciplinary instructional and applied experiences with young children with high-intensity needs and their families.

For more information, download a PDF from the Office of Special Education Programs Discretionary Grants Database .