Gerald Mahoney, Ph.D. received his doctoral degree from Peabody College of Vanderbilt University in child development and mental retardation research. He is currently the Verna Houck Motto Professor of Families and Communities at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. Previously Dr. Mahoney held faculty positions at UCLA, the University of Michigan, University of Connecticut, Winthrop University and Kent State University. He was also the director of the Family Child Learning Center, an early intervention research and training center sponsored by Children’s Hospital of Akron.

Dr. Mahoney’s research has focused primarily on parent and family influences on children’s development and social emotional functioning. In particular, he has conducted numerous studies on parent interactional influences on the development of children at-risk or with disabilities, as well as on the application of research findings from the parent-child literature to early intervention practice. Dr. Mahoney has co-authored two early intervention curricula: the Transactional Intervention Program (TRIP) and Responsive Teaching.

Currently, Dr. Mahoney is working on two grant supported projects: the Developmental Partners model demonstration project and an early childhood mental health research project both of which are funded by the U.S. Department of Education. In the Developmental Partners project, Dr. Mahoney is evaluating the effectiveness of the Responsive Teaching intervention model on young adopted children and their families. In his early childhood mental health research project, he is examining the impact of Responsive Teaching on the social emotional concerns of young children.

In addition to consulting with agencies regarding the implementation and evaluation of Responsive Teaching, Dr. Mahoney conducts Awareness and Getting Started workshops.

James MacDonald has spent more than 30 years investigating how persons with disabilities socialize and communicate. He earned his doctoral degree at the University of Minnesota studying communicative disorders and behavioral psychology. For 24 years Dr MacDonald was a member of the faculty in Speech and Hearing Science at Ohio State University where he was involved in clinical, research and teaching efforts at the Nisonger Center for Developmental Disabilities. At the Nisonger Center he directed the Parent-Child Communication Clinic and implemented several research and training projects related to intervention for social and communicative development.

Early on, Dr. MacDonald’s research focused on the natural roles of parents in children’s language development. Several studies resulted in identifying five global responsive strategies that predicted increases in children’s communication. These research findings were the basis for a parent-based intervention model called The ECO (Ecological) Language Program. Dr. MacDonald’s extensive clinical experiences using the ECO program with more than 1000 families of children with autism, Down syndrome, speech disorders and other late talking conditions provided the experiential foundation for many of the clinical strategies and concepts in the Responsive Teaching curriculum. Currently, Dr. MacDonald directs the Communicating Partners Center in Columbus, Ohio. The center is a clinical and teaching network of many parents and professionals who have completed training in the model.

He personally provides clinical service to many families and communicates to over 1000 on an Internet discussion group. His primary concern is to work to insure that children with autism and other late talking concerns develop stable social relationships. Information on his work can be accessed on his web site.

In addition to providing technical assistance to a variety of clinical, educational and community agencies responsible for children with communication disorders, Dr. MacDonald is also available to do workshops on using the Responsive Teaching curriculum to address the communication needs of children with ASD, Down syndrome and other disabilities.

Dr. MacDonald’s web page is www.jamesdmacdonald.org

Frida Perales, M.Ed. is currently the Training Coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Early Intervention Training Program at Case Western Reserve University, Mandel School of Applied Sciences. She received her BA in psychology from Edgecliff College, Xavier University and her M.Ed. in guidance and counseling from Xavier University. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Social Welfare at Case Western Reserve University. Her work experience in special education and early intervention is extensive; she has worked directly with children in the classroom, with parents and young children in home and center based programs, led parent training workshops, trained graduate early intervention students, and has been a project coordinator for 3 federal funded research and demonstration projects. She has also taught 1st, 2nd and 4th grade in a regular elementary school in Los Angeles.

Ms Perales has been integrally involved in the development of the Responsive Teaching curriculum. She implemented RT while working as an interventionist at the Family Child Learning Center with families who have children with disabilities and Autism Spectrum Disorders. She is the co-author of the “Developmental Rainbow: Early Childhood Developmental Profile” as well as several other papers related to the rationale and evaluation of Responsive Teaching. She has provided training to professionals on the “Maternal Behavior Rating Scale” and on play based developmental assessment procedures. Ms. Perales also provides training and technical assistance to agencies interested in implementing the Responsive Teaching Curriculum.

Bridgette Wiggers, Ph.D. is a licensed school and clinical psychologist who has extensive experience in providing early intervention to young children with disabilities and their families. Currently she is the project coordinator of a field initiated research project sponsored by the United States Department of Education entitled “Impact of Relationship Focused Intervention with Young Children with Mental Health Concerns”. Dr. Wiggers has worked as a Research Associate at the Center on Intervention for Children and Families for the past three years. In her dissertation, she used a path analysis to investigate the influence of relationship-focused intervention, parent and child characteristics, and parent interaction style on the social-emotional competence of children with developmental disabilities (Wiggers, 2002).