LAWRENCE SHELTON, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
• Lawrence Shelton has
taught in the Human Development and Family Studies program since its
inception at the University of Vermont in 1971. His childhood and
adolescence were fairly uneventful, growing up in a healthy family in
the small town of Carrollton, Illinois. He completed adolescence
as an undergraduate at Harvard, where he studied Social Relations. At
Harvard, he took [and passed] courses with Erik Erikson, George
Goethals, George Gardner, Robert White, Brendan Maher, John Spiegel,
and B. F. Skinner, among others. Larry earned the Ph.D. in Child
Psychology in 1970 from the Institute of Child Development at the
University of Minnesota, where he was the first doctoral student of the
late John P. Hill, an eminent figure in the field of adolescence.
• Larry describes himself as an applied developmental ecological
-- or "develecological" -- psychologist. His professional goals
include to understand and help others understand how development
happens, across the whole lifespan, and how experiences in
relationships and community settings help shape a person's life.
• Larry teaches the introductory life span development course,
the introductory family course, and the senior level course on the
family ecosystem. His seminars include Adolescence and Youth;
Advanced Child Development; Parenting through Separation, Divorce, and
Remarriage; and Boys and Men: Development, Relationships, and Risks.
•
Larry has been Co-Principal Investigator with Susan Edelman
for a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of
Post-Secondary Education. Their project is to develop and
implement a program to consult with UVM faculty to incorporate the
principles of Universal Design for Learning into UVM courses.
Their project is called "UDL@UVM" or "Better Learning by Design."
•
Recently Larry became the Faculty UDL Consultant on the staff of
the Think College Vermont project, designed to create a college
experience for students with intellectual disabilities. In that
project, he works with UVM faculty to help them provide the best
possible class experience for the students in the program.

Larry
1959
Larry &
Laurie 2003
Larry 2005