Chair's Welcome

Welcome to the web site for the Darden College Department of Early Childhood, Speech Pathology and Special Education ESSE.  We host this site in the Lions Child Study Center (45th Street & Hampton Blvd.), a building that was made possible through the generosity of civic clubs, alumni, patrons, faculty and students and which opened in 1997.

The department houses three programs: Early Childhood, Speech Pathology and Special Education and offers graduate degrees in each.  In addition, it also provides undergraduate education for students in Speech Pathology.  Other activities of the Dept. of ESSE include operation of the Tidewater Scottish Rite Center for Childhood Speech and Language Disorders, the University Speech and Hearing Clinic, The Child Development Center, the preschool/kindergarten program and the Kiwanis Parenting Center.  These clinical programs, housed in the Lions Child Study Center, give students valuable practical experience, deliver needed clinical and educational services to members of the Hampton Roads community and provide a focus for innovative faculty and student research.  There are approximately 250 families served by the clinical programs in the Child Study Center every year.

In addition, the ESSE department has initiated a special education distance learning endorsement program (CSEEP) funded through a grant from the Virginia Department of Education.  To accomplish the objectives of this grant, a collaborative network has been developed among school divisions, state operated programs, private special education schools, the Virginia Department of Education and Old Dominion University.  Another statewide project, the Training and Technical Assistance Consortium (T-TAC), is housed in the Child Study Center.  This program was designed to improve services to preschool children with disabilities in Virginia and is one of five regional centers which provide field based technical assistance directly to the persons requesting assistance, such as training seminars, consultation and demonstration.

Dr. Nicholas Bountress
Department Chair, ESSE