Grant to Improve Services for Young Children who Have Complex Communication Needs and Benefit from Augmentative or Alternative Communication Systems

Each year, this grant from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in the U.S. Department of Education provides three consecutive semesters of free tuition for four or five graduate students from the Speech-Language Pathology program in the Department of Audiology & Speech Pathology at UTHSC and four or five students in the Special Education program in the Department of Theory and Practice in Teacher Education at UTK.

The focus of the preparation is on Family Centered Early Intervention and designed to improve the early language and pre-literacy skills of young children with complex communication needs who use or would benefit from augmentative or alternative communication systems. We recognize the heterogeneous nature of children with complex communication needs and prepare grant trainees to serve as direct service providers and consultants to other early intervention professionals.

If you participate in the Early Leaps grant, no additional time will be added to your educational degree program. The courses and practica required of grant scholars are designed so that they fit into the regular degree schedule and are already required for your degree program or available as elective content.

If you would like more information about this grant funding opportunity, please contact Dr. Ilsa Schwarz in Audiology and Speech Pathology at ischwarz@uthsc.edu or Dr. MariBeth Coleman in Special Education at mbc@utk.edu.