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Special Education on the Cutting Edge

Students at NMSU working with special needs children.

  September 4, 2015 – Las Cruces, NM - On this edition of PUENTES, bridges to the community, Emily Guerra meets with Department Head of Special Education and Communication Disorders at New Mexico State University, Dr. Marlene Salas-Provance. She says more educators are needed in our community to specialize in Special Education.

The field of Special Education has come a long way in the last 40 year, children are no longer kept out of schools, and there are now special classrooms for children with autism and other special needs. Graduate students at NMSU are being trained to use cutting edge techniques for helping children with autism in our community, and are working with Las Cruces Public Schools. Salas-Provance says that one of the biggest concerns in special education we have today is that 1 in 63 children have been diagnosed with autism. She says that one of the biggest challenges is providing the appropriate evaluation in a timely manner, and that it sometimes takes up to three years to get the diagnosis of autism to families in Southern New Mexico.

To learn more about the fields of Special Education and Communication Disorders, visit NMSU’s website www.spedcd.education.nmsu.edu.