This semester’s Play Lab focuses on the Unstuck and On Target!  curriculum, which is designed to help children with special needs develop social skills related to flexible thinking.  We had five talented teachers who ran the program and children experienced much improvement during the course of Play Lab.

The next Play Lab is scheduled for Fall 2014.  Any families interested in receiving applications when they come out (expected Summer 2014) can contact Dr. Nicole Myers at nmyers@umw.edu to be added to our mailing list.

*Please note that is one correction to the article, Dr. Myers received a Jepson Fellowship to conduct the research and development of Play Lab.  Initial start-up Grant Funding was provided by VA KOVAR.

http://umwbullet.com/2013/04/18/play-lab-helps-special-needs-

The VA Knights of Columbus provided the UMW Autism Clinic and Play Lab approximately $20,000.00 to open the first Play Labs this year.  We are very thankful for their support and generous contribution to our program.  The Knights of Columbus KOVAR grant funds programs which support individuals with intellectual disabilities and we will be working with children with intellectual disabilities,autism, and related developmental disabilities in the Play Lab as part of this grant award!

The university is currently on break in between semesters. Dr. Myers is working on the application and criteria during this time. In August, information will be sent out to interested families that includes the application, criteria, and other information.  From August until October, UMW students will be trained in research-based strategies to work with children enrolled in Play Lab.  They will also design the activities we do and a training component for families.  In October, Play Lab will start.  The number of children who are accepted will depend on the amount of financial support we have received from grants and the number of UMW students enrolled in the course as volunteers.There will be a cost to the Play Lab and parents MUST participate in the parent sessions.  We are trying to keep the costs as low as possible, but that is also contingent upon our grant funding.  Please note that every semester we anticipate running Play Lab, we will be changing the focus or theme of the Play Lab to hopefully meet the needs of a greater variety of children in our region. If your child does not meet the criteria for the first Play Lab there will be more to come!

What we need from interested parents at this time is to vote for the Pepsi Refresh grant and to make sure we have their email entered into our system so that you will receive our announcements. Parents will need to check back on this blog site for more information closer to August.  We do not need requests from doctors, sample IEP’s, etc. at this time. 

We are currently working on writing grants, developing the application and Play Lab criteria for the first session and will be back in touch in August. We do know that we are looking for children with intellectual disabilities, autism, developmental delays, and sensory processing issues such as ADHD.  We also anticipate having typicallly developing peers as part of the process.  We are very excited to get Play Lab up and running and to be working with your children!

Designed by Tim Sainburg from Brambling Design

Designed by Tim Sainburg from Brambling Design

The University of Mary Washington (Fredericksburg, VA) has recently been approved to participate in the Pepsi Refresh Challenge. This program allows individuals and groups to write grant proposals. If they are selected,individuals will have a month to vote on them and the top grants are awarded. We have written a grant that would allow us to receive 25,000.00 in funds to support the development and continuation of The UMW Autism (and related disabilities) Clinic and UMW Play Lab if we are chosen as one of the top winners. In fact 85% of the students who will be participating will also have intellectual disability as a diagnosis.  The UMW Autism Clinic and Play Lab are managed through The Mary Washington Foundation, a non-profit organization.

The UMW Autism Clinic and UMW Play Lab will provide much needed autism (ID,ADHD, SPD) resources to an area that does not have many resources. The Play Lab allows university students (future teachers) to learn how to work with children with autism and related disabilities (under faculty supervision) and to train their parents in strategies that they can use at home.

Please support this worthwhile cause! We are currently ranked #72, but we need to be in the top 5 in order to be funded. Pepsi allows individuals to register (with a user name and password only). Then every day you can get onto the PepsiRefresh site and vote for the UMW Autism Clinic and 9 other grant proposals. Youcan find our project by searching in the 25,000.00 range and Education, or thereis a tab at the top that allows you to click on “those near you” if you are in the Fredericksburg area. After you have voted once, you can easily click the tab at the top for “ideas you support.” We suggest that you keep this email as a reminder in your inbox so that you can remember to vote every day or as often as you are on email.

Please help us make a difference in the lives of children with ASD and related disabilities! Go to:

http://www.refresheverything.com/umwautismclinicplaylab

to sign up and vote each day this month for The UMW Play Lab!

Please share with any support groups, individuals, church groups, etc. who might be interested in getting better services in our local area! You have permission to place this email on your websites.

Thank you,
N. Myers