, an expert on the mental health challenges and needs of teens with disabilities, will deliver the 2006 Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Martin Luther King Jr. lecture Monday, Jan. 16, at 4:10 p.m. in Room 241 of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center. The lecture, part of the , is free and open to the public.
Weisner, a professor of psychiatry and anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles, has devoted his career to understanding and improving the well-being of youth with disabilities and their families. The title of his lecture is “We Speak Different Dialects: How Teens with Disabilities Think About Friendship, Schools and Their Lives.”
Weisner will discuss the results of his research with Los Angeles adolescents with a wide range of disabilities in which he learned about their understanding of their disability and the factors most important to improving their quality of life—friendship, a stable routine, low conflict, resources and social support.
The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center is a national center for research on development and developmental disabilities and a national Center for Excellence on Developmental Disabilities Research, Education and Service. For more information about the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, visit .
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Media contacts: Stephanie Newton, (615) 322-5658
stephanie.newton@vanderbilt.edu
Melanie Moran, (615) 322-NEWS
melanie.moran@vanderbilt.edu