Now that the school year (and election season) is in full swing again, we’re finding lots of great articles and resources online that might educate or inspire.
Although this article from the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD), “Parent Determination Leads to Son’s Success with Assistive Technology” focuses on a parent whose child has a learning disability, the core message about “the right combination of tools and resources and an earlier diagnosis” and the recommendation “to identify strategies and technologies that would compensate for his disability” really resonated. What has worked for your child? Have you found the right combination of tools and resources yet?
The NCLD article gives a nice shoutout to our partner Bookshare, and the free access it offers to ebooks. Given that the election season is upon us, why not check out these books, both fiction and nonfiction, that Bookshare recommended via its blog post, “There’s an Election Coming!” The reading levels run the gamut from grades 1 to 9.
As the weather gets chillier and the leaves start changing colors, I admit my thoughts turn to apple pie. So I really enjoyed this webinar from Hadley with Christine Ha, the first ever visually impaired contestant, and winner, of the cooking competition show MasterChef. She offers terrific tips for adapting kitchen techniques to accommodate her vision loss, and talks about how…yes, apple pie was a turning point in her experience on MasterChef. If you’ve been trying to encourage your child’s independence in the kitchen, check out this free webinar for some inspiration.
Finally, we’re excited about the new webinar series from AFB based on the Learning to Listen/Listening to Learn book by Liz Barclay. The second one is coming up soon, and deals with Listening and Learning for Students with Additional Disabilities. The first webinar is now available in an archived version; it focused on Exploring the Link between Listening and Literacy Skill Development. Students who have visual impairments and additional disabilities need to be engaged in meaningful learning experiences that use touch and hearing to gain information, respond to other people, move within their environment, and occupy their leisure time. These webinars promise to provide a lot of great tips and strategies to parents and teachers alike.