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Special Education Faculty
Janis Chadsey
Professor Emeritus
I am concerned with the social integration experienced by youth and young adults as they make their transition from school to adulthood. Through the Transition Research Institute, I have studied the social interactions and relationships experienced by youths in both school and employment settings; have conducted research designed to teach social skills; and have studied the meaning of social integration from the perspective of youths themselves. In addition to this research, I have conducted research studying practices that facilitate spontaneous communication and expand pragmatic functions of learners with low incidence disabilities. I am actively involved in our teacher certification program.more information...
Stacy Dymond
Associate Professor
My research interests focus on curriculum and instruction for students with significant cognitive disabilities in inclusive school and community settings. I am particularly interested in the use of service learning as a form of pedagogy for promoting access to academics and life skills curriculum.more information...
Tweety Felner
Research Assistant Professor
Tweety Yates' research interests include parent-child interaction and personnel development issues in early childhood. She is currently evaluating the validity and feasibility of a parent-child relationship-based model of early intervention in culturally and geographically diverse settings. She is also involved in training, outreach, and evaluation of a story-based creative arts curriculum derived from a variety of cultural and ethnic traditions designed to promote child learning and early literacy skills.more information...
Susan Fowler
Professor
Susan Fowler is active in research related to families of young children with developmental delays and issues involving access to early care and education. She involves graduate students in her research and scholarship. Recent studies with graduate students have included survey and analysis of early care and education providers with a focus on ECSE teachers; involvement of families in story book reading routines with children at risk for school problems and assessment of family supports in helping children with developmental delays develop friendships. She receives funding for her work from state and federal agencies.more information...
Janet Gaffney
Professor
Janet S. Gaffney is a professor in the Department of Special Education with affiliate appointments in the Departments of Educational Psychology and Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Her research focuses on developing teachers' expertise to facilitate the independent literacy learning of children and youth with and without disabilities who are not making adequate progress. She works collaboratively with district partners to design organic, high-impact, system-wide, long-term, professional development opportunities that lead to documented and sustainable literacy outcomes for children.more information...
James Halle
Professor
For more than 20 years I have been involved in research related to communication and language development of children with disabilities. This program of research has focused on examining both social communication of young children with significant intellectual disability, and the ecological factors that facilitate and discourage communicative growth. I have also worked on developing interventions to encourage more effective and efficient communication by these children. Recent projects include assessing current dictionaries of prelinguistic forms used by children with severe disabilities to communicate and the functions (e.g., request, protest, comment) these forms serve for the children.more information...
Robert Henderson
Professor Emeritus
Professor Henderson’s research activities during his 50 years at Illinois cover four areas: prevention of brain damage by early detection and dietary treatment of inborn errors of metabolism, especially Phenylketonuria (PKU); effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery systems for students with disabilities; equity in financing special education programs in the USA and Canada; comparative evaluation of service delivery systems worldwide. He serves on the editorial board of several USA and international professional journals in Special Education.more information...
Nancy Hertzog
Associate Professor
At the core of my research program is the question, "In what ways can teachers challenge all children in inclusive elementary classrooms?" This question ties two thrusts of my research program together: interest in instructional strategies that challenge all children; and interest in gifted programming practices. Beginning with my introduction into research methodology, I have been approaching this broad research question systematically by looking at instructional practices which have typically been designed for students regarded as gifted, and I have been examining the impact and perspectives of gifted programming practices from the students and families who have been involved in them.more information...
Lilian Katz
Professor Emeritus
My past research has focused on developmental stages of teachers; mixed-age grouping; teacher-parent relations; teacher education; self-esteem vs. narcissism; gender differences and pedagogy; and dispositions, their development and assessment. My current research projects include project approach implementation and issues in mixed-age grouping.more information...
Jeanette McCollum
Professor Emeritus
My research interests have led me into three separate but interrelated areas of study,: (a) social interaction between infants with disabilities and their caregivers and the implications of these interactions for the infant's optimal development: (b) policy issues related to personnel working with infants with disabilities and their families, and (c) professional development related to assisting practicing early childhood teachers to upgrade their skills in emergent literacy teaching. I have conducted several studies describing the work roles and professional qualifications of early intervention personnel.more information...
David Richman
Associate Professor
My teaching and research focuses on assessment and treatment of behavior disorders such as aggression, property destruction, and self-injurious behavior within a Behavior Analytic conceptual model. Current research areas focus on studying the effects of early intervention and prevention treatment packages for birth-to-five children with disabilities exhibiting emerging self-injury. We are attempting to develop behaviorally-based parent training programs to enhance child functional communication and reduce self-injury, chronic stereotypic behavior, and other common early childhood behavior problems such as tantrums.more information...
Rosa Milagros Santos Gilbertz
Associate Professor
For several years I worked as a preschool teacher and as a special education teacher . I am an active member of DEC serving in various leadership roles for the Illinois subdivision and national DEC. I serve on the Editorial Board of the Division for Early Childhood's (DEC) Journal on Early Intervention and currently an Associate Editor for the Young Exceptional Children journal . My research interests include issues that relate to the impact of culture, race and language in the delivery of services to young children with disabilities (birth to five years old) and their families. My current research efforts focus on the examination of parent-child interactions across cultures.more information...
Karrie Shogren
Assistant Professor
The ultimate goal of my work is to identify and implement strategies that support the self-determination and full participation of people with disabilities in our diverse society. My work cuts across three areas. First, conceptualizations of disability in society and the impacts of the ecological model of disability and the supports paradigm on our understanding of disability and the supports provided to people with disabilities. My research and writing in this area focuses on public policy, systems change, definition and classification systems and their interactive effects on people with disabilities.more information...
Jenny Singleton
Affiliate
My current program of research focuses on deaf children's language development, both American Sign Language and English, including investigation of the ways that deaf teachers support deaf children's identity and language development through visual means.more information...
John Trach
Associate Professor
Current research includes the transition of students from school to work and employment for persons with disabilities, the development of support networks to enhance community inclusion, program implementation and evaluation, and inservice and preservice training. Goals for future research projects are to more effectively describe successful postschool outcomes for persons with significant disabilities maximizing entitlement programs (e.g., public school, social security).more information...
