UW-Madison’s Andrea Ruppar is the principal investigator (PI) on a new $1.4 million grant that will train students at the university how to work with young people who have complex communication needs over the next four years.
Ruppar is an associate professor of special education with the School of Education’s Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education (RPSE). Kimber Wilkerson, a professor with RPSE and the faculty director of the School’s Teacher Education Center, is a co-PI on this project along with Katie Hustad, a UW-Madison professor of communication sciences and disorders.
The grant, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs, will allow the team to collaborate with local schools to provide practical experiences for 16 UW-Madison students studying communication sciences and disorders, and 16 students studying to become special education teachers.
The UW-Madison students will learn about assessment, literacy, and communication instruction for young people who use augmentative and alternative communication in inclusive school settings. The UW-Madison students will gain hands-on experience in the UW Speech and Hearing Clinic, will have shared coursework and school-based practical experiences, and learn state-of-the-art interventions for communication instruction.
Ruppar explains how students who have complex communication needs have disabilities that make verbal speech difficult. Examples include autism, apraxia of speech, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, or multiple disabilities.
“Students with complex communication needs are more likely to be excluded from everyday school activities,” says Ruppar. “I am passionate about opening the doors of communication to students who do not speak to communicate, and I am thrilled to be able to collaborate with colleagues in communications sciences and disorders to pass that passion on to future educators. Through this partnership, we will be able to provide specific and intensive training to create a cohort of experts ready to transform education for learners who have always been on the margins of education.”