The Bridge Project: Bringing Early Childhood Special Educators and Behavior Interventionists Together Through Interdisciplinary Evidence-Based Preparation to Serve Young Children with High-Intensity Needs

The Bridge Project: Bringing Early Childhood Special Educators and Behavior Interventionists Together Through Interdisciplinary Evidence-Based Preparation to Serve Young Children with High-Intensity Needs is designed to address the critical shortage of highly qualified professionals prepared to collaboratively serve infants, toddlers, and young children with disabilities who have high intensity needs across a variety of settings. Through providing interdisciplinary collaborative enriched coursework, specially designed seminars, and fieldwork experiences to Master's level early childhood special educators (ECSE) and behavior interventionists, the goal of the project will prepare 30 highly qualified professionals from diverse backgrounds to work with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with high intensity needs and their families. This interdisciplinary project is a joint effort between the Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) program in the Department of Special Education in the Michael D. Eiser College of Education and the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) program housed within the Department of Psychology in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Aligned with core ECSE and ABA program philosophies, the Bridge Project will focus on a) meeting the dual needs of infant, toddlers, and young children with complex behavioral and educational issues and their families, b) interdisciplinary collaboration between behavioral interventionists and early childhood special educators to meet child and family needs, c) supporting the participation of young children with complex needs in early childhood inclusion settings and natural environments, d) positive behavioral interventions and targeted educational supports, e) family-centered practices to collaborate with caregivers to identify and implement behavioral and educational interventions, and f) evidence-based practices consistent with ABA and ECSE program standards. Graduates of the project will be well prepared and fully certified for positions that serve infants, toddlers, and preschool children with disabilities and their families.