ICDL Graduate School Opens

The Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders (ICDL) Graduate School welcomed our first incoming class of students in January 2008. The new ICDL Graduate School features a PhD program and course of study in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health and Developmental Disorders, the first program of its kind. 

The ICDL Graduate School offers an innovative advanced education model, utilizing distance learning and a virtual classroom format, fully accredited as a postsecondary degree granting institution by the California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education (BPPVE). The learning process integrates online courses with audiovisual material, online forums, videoconferencing, and regional group discussions.

The initial class of 25 graduate students from all over the United States are often established professionals within their own disciplines, representing the areas of  mental health, education, occupational therapy and speech and language pathology. “The fact that I can sit at home, in front of my computer and attend class while not leaving my house is nothing short of remarkable,” says Cindy Puccio, LCSW, a student living in New York State.

The ICDL Graduate School embraces an interdisciplinary developmental perspective encompassing all aspects of child development.  The educational focus of the ICDL Graduate School incorporates the insights and findings of cutting edge research on the development of the mind and brain, emotions, cognition, language, motor, sensory integration, cultural considerations and family functioning.  The program’s goal is to provide students with an integrated developmental understanding of the full range of human functioning in infancy and early childhood, from the major mental health and developmental disorders to healthy adaptation.  Approaches to observation, assessment, intervention, and the facilitation of healthy functioning will be considered from this unique multidisciplinary developmental perspective. The aim is to prepare to become leaders in the field, gaining a unified developmental and relationship-based approach to their work.

Students with the ICDL Graduate School have rare access to nationally and internationally renowned multi-disciplinary researchers and practitioners. Only a distance-learning format could make this possible.  The faculty includes leading specialists in the diagnosis and treatment of infants and young children with developmental delays.  Featured faculty members include Stanley Greenspan, MD, Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at George Washington University Medical School and Chairman of the ICDL, and Serena Wieder, PhD, Clinical Psychologist and Associate Chair of the ICDL, and on the faculty with the Washington School of Psychiatry, Infant Mental Health program. Together Drs. Greenspan and Wieder have published widely in the professional literature and co-authored several books.  The Academic Dean of the ICDL Graduate School is Barbara Kalmanson, PhD, Clinical Psychologist, Special Educator and Infant Mental Health consultant to programs nationwide.

The first trimester featured coursework in “Human Development,” taught by Stanley Greenspan, MD and Ira Glovinsky, PhD, clinical researcher and author;  “Language Development,” taught by Sima Gerber, PhD, SLP, Queens College, CUNY, New York;  “Motor and Sensory Processing Development,” with Rosemary White, OTR/L, Seattle, WA; and “Reflective Adult Learning,” grounding students in the concept of process over content, and the principals of critical thinking, self-reflection, conceptualization and practice, taught by Griff Doyle, PhD, Maryland, and Ruby Salazar, LCSW, BCD, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Doyle suggests that initial adjustments to this learning modality were a bit challenging, however,  “Students overwhelmingly report that, in spite of their initial panic, most feel calmer, thrilled with their courses, and surprised how quickly they feel a growing sense of warmth and cohesion in our ‘virtual world.’”

Additional faculty includes Cecilia Breinbauer, MD, MPH, Devin Casenhiser, PhD, Barbara Dunbar, PhD, Lorraine Ehlers-Flint, PhD, Gil Foley, EdD, Stuart Shanker, D. Phil., Rebecca Shahmoon Shanok, LCSW, PhD, Rick Solomon, MD, and Harry Wachs, OD. Future courses will cover social emotional development, language development, neuroscience, and many other facets of infant mental health.

The ICDL Graduate School offers a rolling application process, encouraging qualified applicants throughout the United States and abroad to apply. For more information on the next enrollment cycle please click here.