Blended learning: strengths, challenges, and lessons learned in an interprofessional training program.

This field report outlines the goals of providing a blended learning model for an interdisciplinary training program for healthcare professionals who care for children with disabilities. The curriculum blended traditional face-to-face or on-site learning with integrated online interactive instruction. Credit earning and audited graduate level online coursework, community engagement experiences, and on-site training with maternal and child health community engagement opportunities were blended into a cohesive program. The training approach emphasized adult learning principles in different environmental contexts integrating multiple components of the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities Program. This paper describes the key principles adopted for this blended approach and the accomplishments, challenges, and lessons learned. The discussion offers examples from training content, material gathered through yearly program evaluation, as well as university course evaluations. The lessons learned consider the process and the implications for the role of blended learning in this type of training program with suggestions for future development and adoption by other programs.

Promoting good health in adolescents with disabilities.

The recent attempts to implement the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act underscore the necessity for promoting good health in adolescents with disabilities. This article addresses the reasons why this concern has not been recognized and explores the concepts of good health, habilitation, and the effects of assistance in encouraging independence for youths with developmental disabilities. The article discusses how mobility, education, family adjustment, social relationships and sexuality, and emotional adjustment to adolescence influence health adjustment. Social work implications suggest a holistic approach emphasizing the concepts of youth and family empowerment and quality of life as the key professional endeavors in practice with youths with disabilities.