Group items tagged

The Brain Balance Achievement Center, a franchise that opened in Mequon last summer, offers a program that it contends can help children overcome attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia, Asperger's syndrome, Tourette syndrome, autism and other disorders. The 12-week program - costing $6,000, plus roughly $125 to $500 in nutritional supplements - purportedly does this by addressing an imbalance between the right and left sides of the brain that it calls "functional disconnection syndrome." The program is based on the contention that ADHD, dyslexia, autism and other disorders all result from this syndrome. "That functional disconnection syndrome basically states in the literature that the two sides of the brain are not communicating effectively together due to the fact that one side of the brain is actually maturing at a faster rate than the other side," said Jeremy Fritz, a chiropractor and co-owner of the franchise. The "literature" consists of one study of children with ADHD, co-authored by the program's founder, published in an obscure journal based in Tel Aviv, Israel. There are no studies in respected, peer-reviewed journals that contend ADHD, dyslexia, autism and other disorders stem from the development of one side of the brain faster than the other. "None of the neuro research would even come close to suggesting that," said Mina Dulcan, a professor at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and the head of the child and adolescent psychiatry program at Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago.

Camp Buckskin has been helping young people with ADD, ADHD, Learning Disabilities, Aspergers, or those who may be adopted to learn and grow for more than 50 years. We provide a structured, consistent, and supportive environment with quality instruction in traditional camp and some academic activities. Our featured Personal Growth Program works to enhance social awareness and improve social skills. Our parents are most interested in helping their children make and maintain friendships, so we work each day to accomplish this goal. In addition, we strive to improve problem solving/coping skills to help our campers become more self reliant and take on increased responsibility for themselves.

Through the Looking Glass and its National Center for Parents with Disabilities and their Families are pleased to announce new scholarships specifically for high school seniors and college students who have parents with disabilities. A total of ten $1000 scholarships will be given out Fall 2010. These scholarships are part of Through the Looking Glass' National Center for Parents with Disabilities and their Families. Please note that the 2010 awards have different application procedures than previous years.There are two separate scholarship awards, and each has separate eligibility requirements: High School Seniors - To be eligible, a student must be a high school graduate (or graduating senior) by Summer 2010, planning to attend a two-year or four-year college in Fall 2010 in pursuit of an AA, BA or BS degree, and have at least one parent with a disability. College Students - To be eligible, a student must be currently enrolled in a in a two-year or four-year college in Fall 2010 in pursuit of an AA, BA or BS degree, be 21 years of age or younger as of March 1, 2010,and have at least one parent with a disability.

Every kid should be able to look back on summer camp as a memorable time spent having fun, making friends, and gaining new skills and independence. Yet, as if the process of finding the right camp isn’t baffling enough, parents of children with special needs come to the search process with an additional, and often complex, set of concerns. To get at the heart of some of parents’ most important questions, New York Family spoke with Gary Shulman of Resources for Children with Special Needs, who assures parents that, in the end, it’s worth the effort to find a program both you and your child will love.

The Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell) offers financial awards for students, ages 6 to 19, to participate in after school, weekend or summer programs focused on developing skills in the arts or sciences. Programs can be offered through museums, nature centers, art or music centers, zoological parks, space and science camps, dance and theater studios, martial arts studios or any other program with a focus on the arts or sciences.

Let’s get reconnected and renew our support for each other and other area families. What better time than Autism Awareness month to come and say hello and check out the YMCA facilities where we will be having our monthly meeting. You’ll also get to see the preschool room where we will be providing childcare (This won’t exclude older children. We will have activities for them as well!). Plus, we can talk about our plans for summer activities as well as get ideas from you for additional activities.

The goal of the Optimist Special Children's Camp is to give the children a week of summer camp where they can forget about their disabilities and have fun while giving their caregivers some free time. During the week of camp, the children will play games, do crafts, swim and enjoy a special activity each night (movie, dance, carnival).Click here to download the Camper Enrollment Application (PDF)Click here to download the Counselor Application (PDF)

2010 State Summer Games, May 12-14, 2010 MSU – Brick Breeden Fieldhouse, Bozeman, Montana 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM

William Baker III has struggled with dyslexia almost all of his 19 years — he was diagnosed at 18 months as part of a Rutgers University study.

But Baker never dreamed that a summer job selling Cutco knives — $45,000 worth — would enable him to pay for 50 educators to attend The Dyslexia Foundation's conference on dyslexia at Harvard Medical School in October.

How do you move across the country when you have a child with a disability? As a military family, this is not an idle question, but a real issue that we must confront every two to four years. So, when we received the call to move this summer, we knew we had to be pro-active.

What: The 2011 National Transition Conference will provide a forum for the development of an action agenda, bring together critical partners in the transition community to exchange innovative ideas and approaches; demonstrate knowledge gained from policy implementation; transition practices; research findings; and promote and facilitate the development of networks and relationships. The 2011 National Transition Conference will bring together: Youth and young adults Family members/advocates/caregivers Educators Vocational rehabilitation professionals Employment and training professionals Researchers State and federal officials Leaders in the transition community When: November 7-9, 2011 More info: Registration will be available online in the summer. Check the conference website at www.transition2011.org for conference news and updates.

n high school cross country, there are names for people like Andrew Gerdts - gifted, dedicated and strong. But the memory of the high school junior from Le Sueur-Henderson is seared with another name: "I just dislike the word retarded, or retard," says Andrew softly. The boy with his name in lights on his school's electronic sign wishing him well on at state, has lived most of life defined by a word in a report: autism. "He was not actually diagnosed with autism until the summer after third grade," says Andrew's mother.

The Mountaintop couple developed an application for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch that helps track behavior in autistic children. Called Behavior Tracker Pro, it was approved this summer by Apple as an "app" and was placed on the iTunes Web site, where it can be downloaded for $9.99. It has been downloaded more than 400 times, and the pace of downloads is increasing.

Please take part in the IDEA National Survey, a survey of whether the rights of students with disabilities and their parents are protected.  The IDEA National Survey Project is sponsored by the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD), National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS), Autism Society of America (ASA), Autism National Committee (AutCom), and The Advocacy Institute (AI). The survey is at http://www.ideasurvey.org The survey looks at whether parents are treated as equal partners in their children’s education. Topics include whether the rights of students with disabilities and their parents protected throughout the special education process, including IEP meetings and IEP issues, eligibility (Child Find), Due Process hearings (impartial hearings), and other education issues.  All members of the community are welcome: parents; attorneys, advocates, other professionals; and self-advocates (people with disabilities).  We also welcome all disabilities, not just those our organizations focus on.  You can take the survey and read more about it at http://www.ideasurvey.org The survey will run March-May 2011.  The results will be compiled into a report about experiences under the IDEA that will be published this summer.   For more information, contact Jessica Butler, Coordinator, IDEA National Survey Project, at jessica@jnba.net

What: Do you need to know more about how to promote successful outcomes for your students in the area of math skills? Come to the MASP Summer Institute to discover how to apply recent research findings in your classroom. Learn the essentials of math preparation that we now know underlie proficiency in mathematics, including the importance of effective instruction. Find out the implications for identifying mathematics disabilities and for planning intervention. This is an important conference because there is a great deal of new evidence about how to foster the acquisition of good math skills, information that is not widely known yet. This will be one of the first opportunities that most people in our audience will have to learn about current knowledge on how children learn mathematics and how that learning can go wrong. Presenter One of the world's leading authorities on how children develop understanding of mathematics, Michèle M.M. Mazzocco is a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She is the principal investigator for the Math Skills Development Project at the Kennedy Krieger School. With Daniel B. Berch, she is the co-editor of Why Is Math So Hard for Some Children?: The Nature and Origins of Mathematical Learning Difficulties and Disabilities, a respected book that provides, in the words of one fan, "an exceptional review of literature on LD in maths." Dr. Mazzocco initiated the Math Skills Development Project in 1997, through which she has followed a group of students from kindergarten through 9th grade (so far!). This project involves an extensive study of normally developing children, children who have learning disability not associated with a genetic condition, and children who have genetic conditions that are known to contribute to math disability. The focus of the research is to seek an understanding of how cognitive, behavioral, and genetic factors contribute toward successful mathematics achievement. Dates and Times: June 12, 13, and 14, 2011 Registration opens at 5 o'clock on Sunday evening, June 12, 2011. The conference begins at 6:30 on Sunday evening and concludes for the evening at 9:30. On the following days, June 13 and 14, the conference continues from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm. The doors open at 8 o'clock each morning. Location: Hilton Garden Inn, Billings Treasure State Salon A & B 2465 Grant Road, Billings, Montana, USA 59102 (near Costco and Best Buy) Tel: 406-655-8800 Fax: 406-655-8802

The four-day on-campus experience, Movin' On in Montana, will include a several seminars, a campus tour, campus experiences, and community activities. Seminars may include topics such as self-advocacy skills, career/college interest exploration, disability accommodations, student resources, basic communication/soft skills, and a class lecture. Campus experiences and community activities will be unique to each summer location (e.g., UM’s planetarium, Missoula’s Big Dipper, or Kim Williams Trail hike). Students will also get first-hand experience living in a dorm room and with on-campus dining.