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Showing posts with label UDL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UDL. Show all posts

From the Publishers of 2e: Twice-Exceptional Newsletter

POLL OF THE MONTH. In our May Briefing, we included a poll question: "Based on the gifted children you know, what proportion would you judge as twice-exceptional?" So far, the results have surprised us. You may take the poll (and see the results for yourself) at the Constant Contact site.
KOREAN AUTISM STUDY. A six-year study that sought to screen every child 7-12 in a South Korean city of almost 500,000 yielded an autism prevalence of 2.6 percent, over double the rate commonly assumed in other parts of the world. Twelve percent of the children with ASD in regular schools in the study had a superior IQ. Researchers asked parents and teachers to complete questionnaires; children scoring at a certain level were then individually evaluated. Read more. Separately, the Salt Lake City Tribune reported that Utah's autism rate has doubled in the past six years; read the article.
ASPIES IN COLLEGE. Read about how colleges are helping those with Asperger's make it through school, including the story of one young college graduate, while able to read medical terminology at age 4, was plagued by meltdowns as a young person. Find the article.
THE GIFTED DEVELOPMENT CENTER has issued its May newsletter; in it are a couple brief articles by Linda Powers Leviton on tactile-kinesthetic learners. Find the newsletter. 
UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING is the passion of people at Bowie State University who are applying technology -- for example, image processing --  in UDL so that learners with sensory problems, emotional challenges, or LDs can have "equal access" in education, in both receptive and expressive modes. Find out more.
AD/HD AND EMOTIONAL CONTROL. Having AD/HD might predispose a young person to deficient emotional control, according to a new study. The two conditions appear to run in families. Read about it.
AND FINALLY, THIS. If you "tweet," we suggest using the keyword #2ekids on relevant messages to let others find your post. We include it on our tweets.

WE RECENTLY TALKED TO A MOM of a 2e child who really didn't want to go to school because of challenges he faced there. A New York Times article deals with the issue of school refusal, or school avoidance. Sometimes the problem, says the article, can be traced to anxiety or depression, but there are many factors at play. Read the article.

OCD, TOURETTE'S -- parents who have bright kids with either of those conditions might be interested in recent articles on their basis and therapy, according to a piece in Science Daily. The entire current issue of Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology is devoted to the topics. Find the Science Daily piece, and from there the link to the Journal.

SPOTTING DEVELOPMENT, DISORDERS, IN CHILDREN'S BRAINS. Advances in interpreting data from brain scans may offer ways of detecting abnormalities in development. Researchers have constructed a "normal" development curve with which individual scans can be compared. Find out more.

WRIGHTSLAW AND IDEA. Here's what Wrightslaw promises in the current edition of Special Ed Advocate: "...you will learn how to use IDEA and state academic standards as a tool to negotiate a better educational program and develop your child's IEP. Find out how to use IDEA and the No Child Left Behind Act to improve educational outcomes and results." Find the issue.

DIFFERENT LEARNERS, and how to teach them, is the topic of a new book by a Canadian educator. If you're looking for ways to motivate and engage learners who seem to struggle in "traditional" settings, find out more about the book and the author.

EDUTOPIA features three pieces on teaching to the individual -- two on differentiated instruction/personalized learning and one on "embracing individual smarts." Plus you can vote in a poll on whether multiple intelligences can be cultivated in one classroom. Find the issue.

COMPETITION FOR EDUCATORS -- specifically, for educators using UDL in the classroom. CEC describes the contest and how The National Center on Universal Design for Learning is soliciting entries from educators on the use of UDL. Find out more.

THE SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER ISSUE of 2e Newsletter just was emailed to subscribers. If you're a paid subscriber and didn't get your copy, let us know.

CHECK DELICIOUS to find pointers to news items that didn't make it into this blog postings -- postings dealing with AD/HD, Tourette's, ASD, and more. Our Delicious bookmarks are here.

September 11, 2009

U.K. 2e-FRIENDLY SCHOOLS? A little help, please, for a 2e Newsletter subscriber who lives in the southwest of U.K., in Wiltshire (near Bath). Our subscriber is looking for a 2e-friendly school for her six-year-old son. If you know of one -- or know someone else who might -- please contact us and we'll put you in touch with our subscriber. Help out the 2e community!

NEUROFEEDBACK FOR AD/HD? If you have a gifted child with AD/HD, you might want to check out an article in US News & World Report about neurofeedback and whether it can retrain the brain to enhance focus. Find the article.

EXPORTING GIFTED ED. The Daily Herald, a Chicago-area newspaper, reported on the visit of a Japanese film crew to DaVinci Academy in Elgin, a Chicago suburb. The footage on DaVinci, a school for gifted grade-schoolers, will be part of a documentary on gifted education in the United States to be aired on a major Japanese television channel. The article quotes the cameraman as asserting that the US is "far more advanced in terms of gifted education." Read the article.

IDL PRESENTS ON UDL. If you live in Washington, DC, area, be advised that the Individual Differences in Learning (IDL) Association is hosting a meeting this coming Monday evening on Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is a research-based practice that can help 2e children thrive, according to the group's website. Find out more.

Thanks to CEC SmartBriefs for leads to a couple of these items.

From the Week of November 23rd

"VARSITY ACADEMICS." Maybe everyone knew about this but us, but lately the names "Will Fitzhugh" and "Concord Review" seemed to be showing up frequently on our computer monitor. We discovered that The Concord Review was founded 21 years ago to showcase "exemplary history essays by high school students in the English-speaking world." And it has done that -- over 4.5 million words to date. You may see sample essays ("Austria-Hungary and the Compromise of 1867"; "Abigail Adams: Feminist Myth"; and many more) or subscribe at the publication's site. If you know a young, gifted historian, check it out. You may also read this week's EdNews.org interview with Concord Review publisher Fitzhugh on the topic of academic excellence -- go here.

GENDER AND AD/HD. A recent NPR broadcast described AD/HD in girls, and how it manifests itself differently than in boys. Hear it.

TOOL FOR HELICOPTER PARENTING? A press release brought to our attention the VivoMetrics' LifeShirt, a wearable, remote monitoring technology that continuously monitors multiple vital signs. According to the company, "the system provides researchers, physicians and healthcare providers with actionable insights into a patient's health via the monitoring and relational reporting of key life-sign functions including heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, body position, activity level and skin temperature." While the shirt has lots of legitimate clinical uses, it seems to us that the determined parent could use it to tell if a kid was drinking, doing drugs -- or simply having too much fun. Find out more.

GOT AN EXCEPTIONAL PEDIATRICIAN? Nominate him or her for the American Academy of Pediatrics "Pediatric Heroes -- Champions for Children" award. Deadline: January 16, 2009. Make nominations here.

TWICE-EXCEPTIONAL MAKES THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA. The article calls it "2x" and not "2e," but we won't quibble. A piece in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on November 23rd told of the growing awareness of twice-exceptional students and noted a federal grant of almost $500,000 to fund a five-year local project aimed at better identification and instruction of twice-exceptional students. Read more, along with some fairly divided reader comments on the subject of race, privilege, and diagnosis. :-(

WRIGHTSLAW. The November 25th edition of Special Ed Advocate provided reading recommendations for parents who want to be better advocates for their children. And because many gifted/LD students have IEPs or 504s, books about those topics -- and about negotiating, testing, and legal rights -- are especially relevant to parents of those students. Find the recommendations.

AD/HD -- STRENGTH OR DEFICIT? AD/HD poster-person Michael Phelps has emerged as an inspirational role model among kids with AD/HD and their parents, says an article in the The New York Times. A psychiatrist and author who has AD/HD says it's neither an unmitigated blessing nor unmitigated curse but a trait. The issue: how to be positive while still addressing the risks and limitations inherent in AD/HD. Read the article. (See a follow-up commentary on the article here.)

EDUCATIONAL CHOICES. The state of Florida has passed legislation to give parents more choice in the education of their children -- the choice of full-time, online schooling. The law requires school districts to have online schools for K through 8. Students will be tested, graded, and will take the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, according to the article in the Orlando Sentinel. Find out more.

DYSLEXIA, NEUROPLASTICITY. The Dana Foundation's Brain Work recently featured an article that, in part, covered how the brain's ability to adapt can help dyslexics "rewire" to improve language/reading skills. One interesting quote from the article: "In our schools we've focused on improving the curriculum, the teachers and the medications we give our children, but we've never focused on improving the brain the child brings to the classroom." The article goes on to relate other examples of neuroplasticity and its effect on brain function, for example in people who suffer strokes. Read the article.

UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR LEARNING. Twice-exceptional kids, along with different learners of all types, benefit from instruction that caters to their favored (or most "able") learning mode. Universal design for learning (UDL) is an instructional design technique that acknowledges different modes of learning and emphasizes building courses from the ground up to be able to accommodate those modes. An article in the Burlington, Vermont, Free Press described how UDL is (or could be) applied to instruction at the University of Vermont. For example, says the article, a course on Shakespeare might include books on tape, captioned videos, or student-performance opportunities, not just reading and lecture. The article also covers some of the way technology can help different learners -- ear receivers to help AD/HD students better "tune in" to lectures; text-to-speech software; and lecture captioning. Find out more.