Senior Lecturer
Ph.D., University of Texas at Dallas, 1996
Infant and Child Typical and Atypical Development, Effects of Prenatal Drug Exposure on Child Development

Email:  jtv013100@utdallas.edu
Phone: 214-905-2588
Office:  GR 2.410

Professional Narrative

Dr. VanBeveren earned her Bachelor’s (1983) and Master’s (1988) degrees in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis on Clinical Child Psychology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In 1996, she received her Doctoral degree at the University of Texas at Dallas in Human Development with a specialization in the effects of maternal alcohol and drug use during pregnancy on infant and child development.

As a part-time lecturer at UTD where she has been teaching since 1996, Dr. VanBeveren teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in topics related to typical and atypical infant and child development and to the role and expectations of children in a constantly changing world.

In addition to her work at UTD, Dr. VanBeveren is also connected to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, where she works part-time in a program for drug-exposed children and their primary caregivers. In this position she evaluates children on possible delays and impairments resulting from prenatal drug-exposure. She works with the children to improve language, physical and occupational abilities and she oversees therapeutic activities for helping children overcome deficits in speech, gross, and fine motor development.

Dr. VanBeveren is also involved in research related to the effects of maternal drug use on prenatal and long-term postnatal development. She explores how attachment and relationship issues between the drug-using mother and her child(ren) are affected by alcohol and other drugs and how maternal depression has an impact on parenting skills and possibly on child abuse and neglect.

Dr VanBeveren often presents her findings from her research projects and practical experiences at conferences and workshops nationally and internationally. She has published several articles on alcohol and drug abuse and its effect on infant and child development and she is co-author of a number of chapters in a book entitled: “Drugs and Pregnancy”.