Public Invited to Discuss Services for Children With Disabilities in Webinar Today

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 7, 2017)  Those interested in creating solutions to the challenges faced in education and care services for young children with disabilities are invited to participate in a webinar at 4:30 p.m. (EST) today (Tuesday), Nov. 7.

John Nash and Beth Rous, faculty members in the University of Kentucky College of Education, will host the international online conversation in partnership with Early Childhood Intervention Australia.

Anyone across the globe with an interest in inclusion of children with special needs can access the webinar at: https://uky.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PBGTw2LWQPOBq9xBGI4GjA.

Nash and Rous will be the keynote speakers for the Australian organization’s 2017 Inclusion Symposium. The webinar will provide a preview of the theme of the keynote address through a live, interactive conversation about inclusion and design thinking. Participants can pose questions during the session.

The webinar will cover how innovative approaches like design thinking can provide a human-centered approach to challenges in providing full access and participation for young children with disabilities when they access early childhood education and care services.

Those outside the Eastern time zone can refer to the information below to determine when the webinar will be live in their time zone:

Nov. 7 1:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time 2:30 p.m. Mountain Standard Time 3:30 p.m. Central Standard Time 4:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time

Nov. 8 8:30 a.m. Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney

More about the speakers:

John Nash is department chair and associate professor of educational leadership studies at the UK College of Education and the founding director of the Laboratory on Design Thinking in Education, or dLab. He is a specialist in the application of human-centered design in education. He teaches a range of courses on design thinking, school technology leadership and school reform. His current research agenda focuses on the methods to design and prototype innovations in education. He has held faculty positions at Iowa State University and the University of Texas at El Paso. As a social research scientist at Stanford University, Nash held associate directorship positions in two laboratories: the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning (SCIL) and the Stanford Learning Laboratory, where he managed interdisciplinary and international teams of research scientists examining the effects of innovative technologies on learning.

Beth Rous is professor of educational leadership studies at the UK College of Education and research and policy associate at the UK Human Development Institute. She is a former special education teacher at the preschool, elementary and middle school levels. Since 1990, she has secured over $97 million in federal and state grants/contracts to support the design and large-scale implementation of early care and education programs with a focus on children from vulnerable populations. Her areas of expertise include transition, inclusion, professional development and learning; early childhood accountability systems; and cross sector collaboration to support program quality and child outcomes across child care, Head Start and public pre-k programs. She is past president of the National Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children and regularly serves in an advisory capacity at the national and state levels.

Formed in 1982, Early Childhood Intervention Australia is an organization of professionals and parents that promotes the interests of young children with developmental delays and disabilities. It serves New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.