Cover Story: SOE Programs Lead to New Collaboration
Six-year-old Zane Wiggins loves Wednesdays. “It’s Baylor day! I get to go to Baylor,” he says when he wakes up.
Zane has Asperger Syndrome, and his mother brings him each Wednesday to “social circles” at the Baylor University Center for Developmental Disabilities (BCDD).
“For an hour he is just normal,” Adrian Wiggins said. “He is engaging with others in some kind of structured play. And he loves it.”
BCDD is a collaborative effort between Baylor University and McLane Children’s Scott & White. The Center aims to bring together diagnostic, therapeutic, educational and health care services for children, plus resources for parents. It also provides clinical training for Baylor graduate students.
An April 1 celebration marked the expansion of services, which began in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Psychology. It also was the opening of a new location for the Center, at Hillcrest MacArthur Clinic in north Waco, made possible through the Baylor Scott & White involvement.
Special speakers at the event included Baylor President and Chancellor Ken Starr; John Boyd III, MD, CEO and Chief Medical Officer at McLane Children’s Scott & White; and Drayton McLane Jr., chair of the board for Baylor Scott & White Health and Baylor Regent Emeritus.
“The Center represents and embodies collaboration,” Starr told the standing-room-only crowd. “For families with children with developmental disabilities, it’s just a challenge, and it’s an everyday, almost every moment challenge. So what a blessing this is.”
The new location provides varied work and play spaces, plus easier access, said Kristen Mainor, director of the center’s Behavioral and Educational Services Division. “On campus, sometimes we would disrupt classes, but here the children can make as much noise as they want,” she said. — Meg Cullar
Baylor University Center for Developmental Disabilities
(BCDD) is the umbrella organization for several clinics.
Director: Dr. Eric Robinson
Director of Behavioral and Educational Services: Kristen Mainor
Baylor Autism Resource Clinic (BARC) organizes social skills groups, summer day camp and resources for parents and professionals.
Director: Dr. Julie Ivey-Hatz
Clinic for Assessment, Research and Education (CARE) offers Applied Behavior Analysis therapy and assessments.
Director: Dr. Tonya Davis
Speech and Language Clinic, part of Baylor’s Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, offers speech pathology screenings and treatment.
Director: Dr. David Garrett
For more information, visit
baylor.edu/BCDD.