Historic Research

UW Program for Children with Down Syndrome

A new website "A New Era for Down Syndrome" has been launched, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Down Syndrome Program.  

In January 1971 a new era in the lives of children with Down syndrome, their families, and their teachers began with a class of eleven preschool children.

This website documents the accomplishments of the Down Syndrome Program that was developed at the Experimental Education Unit, Center on Human Development and Disability and the College of Education, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington on the 40th anniversary of the its launch.

Dr. Valentine Dmitriev, the program’s first coordinator, conceived and implemented this innovative program that provided systematic early and continuous intervention that started in infancy. The principal investigators of this demonstration program were Dr. Norris Haring and Dr. Alice Hayden. The original funding was from Handicapped Children’s Early Education Programs (HCEEP)

Father's Network and the Sibling Support Project

The Father's Network and the Sibling Support Project were also both developed at the EEU by Greg Schell and Don Meyer.  All of the 350 Sibshop programs (available world-wide) are based on the model developed at the EEU.  Read more about the support groups available for extended families as well as "A Tale of two Sisters"--written by Kim Lundy, an older sister to an EEU graduate, a participant in the first years of Sibshops, and a graduate of the Early Childhood Special Education Master's degree program.