Rehabilitation Psychology & Special Education

 

Welcome to the Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the only department solely committed to improving the lives of people with disabilities.

Our programs prepare graduates in entry-level and leadership positions to work with, or on behalf of, people with disabilities, their families, rehabilitation counselors, psychologists, and counselor educators; special education teachers and teacher educators; and rehabilitation and special education researchers.

Please watch the videos that describe each of the two department programs.

Culturally Responsive Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (CRPBIS)

Professor Aydin Bal leads a formative intervention experiment on the state-wide implementation of CRPBIS, a social justice-oriented systemic transformation framework. The project is funded by a federal grant (CFDA# 84.027) through Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (WDPI) over two years. Grounded in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and a Local to Global Social Justice perspective, the CRPBIS framework aims to re-mediate school cultures by examining and influencing socio-historical-spatial processes (e.g., the racialization of school discipline) via a continuous cycle of praxis, a collective critical reflection-action process that draws from systemic disruptions, to develop solutions from the ground-up.

The ultimate goal of the CRPBIS framework is to facilitate an ecologically valid, sustainable, and socially just systemic transformation to address disproportionate representation of non-dominant students in punitive and exclusionary disciplinary actions (e.g., expulsion) and special education programs for emotional/ behavioral disorders. In close collaboration with WDPI, two school districts, and community-based social justice organizations, the CRPBIS project has two objectives: (a) form socially positive, academically rich, and inclusive school cultures in four Wisconsin schools; (b) transform the state-level policy and practices that reproduce outcome disparities and the exclusion and marginalization of non-dominant students and families.

For more information, visit www.crpbis.org or contact info@crpbis.org

Rehabilitation Psychology Undergraduate April Legrave Awarded Wisconsin Idea Fellowship

From April Legrave: The main purpose of my project is to help fund a room were people in the community can come and enhance their quality of life. The Snoezelen Center of Northeast Wisconsin is a project that Cerebral Palsy Inc. of Green Bay plans on bringing into its building as a place not only for its clients to use but also the community. It will be available for use by the 17 counties Cerebral Palsy Inc. serves. Snoezelen is a form of therapy that produces soft stimulation of the primary senses in a safe and relaxing environment. This environment can be altered to offer a multisensory experience or a single sensory focus. The room will be filled with sights, sounds, textures, and aromas that can be controlled to stimulate, calm, relax, or energize. Different sensory inputs can be used to address specific needs and the different thresholds of stimulation each person can handle. Many of the sensory devices can be controlled in unique ways so a person who has limited functioning can control the device. I am excited to have the opportunity to instruct in the room and learn about different responses to sensory integration. Having worked with these clients in the past and having had a firsthand opportunity to see the importance of sensory stimulation, I feel that it is important to me to help bring this Center to the Green Bay area.

The Wisconsin Idea Fellowship is awarded by the Morgridge Center for Public Service

A Welcome to New RPSE Staff

We are pleased to extend a warm welcome to Ann Paremski. she is has joined RPSE as a University Services Associate 2.