The University of Memphis has joined longtime partner Harwood Center to benefit special needs children by opening an early learning classroom in the upcoming fall semester.
The Harwood Center is a nonprofit agency that provides support to families and children with special needs. Harwood also provides early learning for special needs children through specialized preschool classes, home sessions, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) classrooms, as well as private sessions.
Sally Parish, the associate dean of the Student Leadership and Involvement, said the university is proud to continue their growing partnership with Harwood in support of children in the Memphis area.
"The University and the Harwood Center have had a long standing academic partnership," Parish said. "We are excited to expand this partnership and care for children in our community through Harwood’s relocation to the UofM."
UofM and Harwood have partnered before through the College of Education's special education programs. Continuing the partnership will continue to benefit special needs children and their families
Parish said the opening of the classrooms will provide quality education to special needs students, as well as provide learning opportunities for UofM students.
"There is a significant need in the Memphis community for access to quality care for children with special needs," Parish said. "This partnership will not only allow us to address this need through a high quality academic program but will also provide exemplary internship and research opportunities for our faculty and students."
The latest expansion by the partnership will include three academic sites for students and lab opportunities for faculty. In addition, the expansion will offer child care for not only students and staff, but it will be open for the community too.
"Students and faculty will have access to best practice research, internship and observation experiences through this partnership," Parish said. "We hope these opportunities will help further advance knowledge and practice in the field of early childhood education, particularly as it relates to supporting children with autism."
Rachel Lauletta, executive director of the Harwood Center, said Harwood is grateful for the expansion.
"Harwood is extremely grateful for the opportunity to build on our long-standing partnership with the University of Memphis,” said Lauletta. “We look forward to combining the strengths of both programs to help close the gap for services for children with developmental needs in the Mid-South community.”
Nolan Cychowski, an engineering major at the UofM, said the partnership will greatly benefit special needs children and their families.
"I think the partnership is a good thing. Not only will it help the children grow but also help the families," Cychowski said. "The university is increasing the amount of resources for these students and taking some of the load off of the families."
Cychowski also said the expansion will also help UofM students gain a new perspective.
"I think it'll be good for students in that field to be exposed to that kind of environment because not a lot of people have the opportunity to be around special needs children," Cychowski said.
Classes are scheduled to open in the Fall of 2020 and primary registration will be open to UofM students, faculty and staff.
