Oshay Johnson, a LEND student and aspiring dietician, said that clinicians have to consider a family’s schedule and routines before making recommendations.

When future clinicians meet children with developmental disabilities on their own turf, it may improve later interactions in the office, said students in the CDS-run Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) program on Monday.

They were joined by their family mentors and the LEND co-directors for the presentation, the latest in CDS’s Lunchtime Learning series.

LEND, a federally-funded program, came to UD in summer 2016. It is designed to immerse graduate and postdoctoral students training for service professions like physical therapy, psychology and special education in the disability community. One of its integral features is “A Day in Our Life,” in which students spend about 15 hours with families who have a child with a developmental disability to see first-hand what their life is like.

Stephanie Kaznica, the program coordinator whose four-year-old daughter Ava has autism, said she mentors LEND students because she wants to inspire clinicians to “see all of Ava. They need to understand that the 45 minutes they get to speak with this child is not the whole child.”

LEND student Oshay Johnson, who is pursuing a master’s degree in human nutrition, said that realization will inform her approach as a dietician. “There are factors I would have never thought about if I just saw a family in a professional setting. It’s my job to ask probing questions and come up with creative ideas that take the family’s needs into account.”